Mending Broken Flowers

Her happy smile faded as she saw Gabriel, then she pasted it back on.

"Hey, white boy!" she called out.

"Uh huh," Gabriel muttered and turned and walked away.

"What, huh?" she asked, angrily, when she caught up to him.

"Nothing," he mumbled.

"What? Huh? You got your panties up in a wad 'cause you seen me kissing somebody else?" Carmen demanded.

"Hey, look, Carmen, it ain't like you know, like we going steady or something, all right?" Gabriel yelled back.

"Fucking right we ain't, so what the fuck you all bent out of shape for, huh?" Carmen demanded.

"Nothing, all right, look, I got a shit load of homework, all right? I catch you later," Gabriel said.

Gabriel let himself into the small dorm room and lay down on his cot.

"Oh well, better you find out what she is now, rather than like a year later, right?" he asked himself.

He wished his Paw-paw was still alive; he wished he had someone, anyone he could talk to.

"Hey, dude!" Ford Dufour yelled, just flinging Gabriel's door open without knocking. "Listen, kick ass party; my buddy's got this house down on California Street, five bucks, you in?"

At first he was going to refuse, and then he thought better about it and smiled.

"Yeah, five bucks? Yeah, I'm in," Gabriel said, swinging his legs off the bed.

"Awe fucking some!" Ford yelled. "Come on; we can walk from here!"

Ford, Gabriel, and seven other guys Ford had managed to round up walked the ten blocks to the rented house. Ford kept up an energetic, animated monologue the entire time, never noticing that no one else even participated in the conversation.

In the back yard, a band had set up and was playing a very horrible rendition of a Waylon Jennings tune. The music was a close approximation of the song, but the singer, a blind man, seemed to think that he had to sing in as nasal a tone as he could.

"Aw, shit, not this fucking ass hole?" one of the other students Ford had corralled moaned.

He turned to Gabriel.

"Guy does that shit, no matter what the song is; fucking twangs it all through his nose. I ain't shitting; he even did 'American Woman' like that. Fucking awful," the guy said.

"Rest of the band sounds okay," Gabriel offered.

"Yeah, wonder why they don't just take his nasal ass out back, shoot him," the guy smiled.

Five bucks bought a chance to grab a handful of chips, but no guarantee that there would be any left, a chance to drink as many beers as he could, provided he could find any left, and a chance to listen to the horrible, non-stop nasal twanging of the singer and his back-up band.

Two of the females there were not looking for any male companionship; they were there with each other. There was a blind girl, but she seemed to be entranced with the blind singer of the band.

Okay, so there's going to be all kind of drinking and fighting and some serious down and dirty fucking, the guy says," Brandon was saying to the small audience he had.

"Uh huh," Gabriel smiled, knowing the punch line already.

"And the other guy says, 'wow, that sounds great! What should I wear?'" Brandon continued.

Gabriel smiled and Brandon had a hard time fighting his own smile.

"And the first guy says, 'whatever you want; it's just going to be me and you.'" Brandon finished and laughed out loud at the collective groans.

"Great party, catch you later," Gabriel said and waved in parting to Ford.

----

Annie smiled as Lily concentrated on the bridal bouquet.

It was a donation bouquet; the nineteen year old bride and the thirty four year old groom were having a 'quickie' wedding and did not have the time, or the money for flowers.

"Just twist off the end, tuck it under, and then wrap the coverlet around it," Annie said as Lily neared the end of the task.

"There! Like that?" Lily asked, looking at Annie.

"Yeah, just like that; address is on ticket number one oh eight, nine seventy two," Annie said and finished the floral arrangement she had been working on.

"Okay, why are some tickets ones and others are fives?" Lily asked.

"The ones are donated; the fives are paid for," Annie smiled.

"And you've had eight thousand, nine hundred and seventy two donations this year?" Lily asked, shocked.

"No, no, Sweetheart!" Annie laughed. "That's since I been open! But I keep records of them; IRS lets me deduct so much every year for them."

"Oh!" Lily said.

"Now, soon as you finish your deliveries, you're done for the day," Annie said and slid an envelope over to Lily.

"Thanks, Miss Annie," Lily smiled as she took her pay envelope and stuck it into the back pocket of her jeans.

She saved the bouquet for last; the others were paying clients and were, therefore, more likely to tip.

"Yeah?" an obviously pregnant girl asked, squinting suspiciously at Lily.

"Hi, you Ann-Marie Bergeron?" Lily asked brightly.

"Yeah?" Ann-Marie asked, still suspicious.

"Hi, this is from Annie's Floral Designs," Lily said cheerfully. "See, we heard you was getting married and we just wanted to make your special day a little brighter, okay?"

Ann-Marie stared, open mouthed at the floral bouquet, and then started sobbing.

"Oh, my God, it's so beautiful!" she cried. "Oh my! I'm afraid to even touch it!"

Lily left the small porch beaming, and also a little tearful.

The girl had cried over her creation, over her floral design.

Lily had made thirty one dollars that day in tips, but the single, sweaty dollar bill Ann-Marie's mom had demanded that Lily accept was something special.

All it had taken was a few minutes of time, a few dollars worth of materials, and a few cheerful words and Ann-Marie would remember, for the rest of her life, the kindness of Annie's Floral Designs.

When she got home, Lily put the sweaty one dollar bill into an envelope, wrote out the date and the name of Ann-Marie Bergeron.

----

"Due, killer party; this time, dude, this time I PROMISE there will be some serious pussy there, Ooowww!" Ford screamed as he barged into Gabriel's room.

"Five bucks, right?" Gabriel smiled and closed his text book.

"Yeah, how'd you guess?" Ford laughed and hurtled down the hall to the next dorm room.

At the party, there were five girls, one of which was extremely drunk, staggering and mumbling.

"Dude, twenty bucks, let you have some of that, William 'Spiff' Bowden said to Gabriel.

"What?" Gabriel asked, surprised.

"Yeah, she'll be doing all of us in about ten minutes; you in?" Spiff asked, holding out his hand for Gabriel's twenty dollars.

"Wait, what? How you know she'll go for that?" Gabriel asked.

"This," Spiff smirked, showing Gabriel a small bottle of murky looking liquid. "I been putting this shit in her drinks; she'll fuck a fire hydrant you tell her to."

"Aw fuck you, dude, that's just fucking sick," Gabriel spat, put his can of beer down and left the house.

----

Cheryl stood in the doorway and smiled sadly.

"So, almost ready to go, huh?" she asked.

"I guess," Lily said sadly.

"Lily! Phone!" Daisy screamed unnecessarily, holding out the cordless phone.

"God damn, I'm standing right here, bitch!" Lily screamed at her smirking sister.

"Hey, you may be a college student," Cheryl hissed, grabbing a handful of Lily's hair, "But you WILL watch your mouth in my house!"

"Yes ma'am, Lily spat and yanked the phone out of Daisy's hand.

"Hello?" Lily asked.

"Hey, Lil!" Peggy Campion shrilled into the telephone.

Lily hated being called 'Lil' and was getting ready to remind her former classmate of this fact.

"Listen; there's a whole bunch of us getting together over here; see, we're like all leaving soon, for college, you know?" Peggy shrilled into the telephone. "Anyway, I was just wondering if you'd like to come on over, hey, my mom's even got a bunch of watermelons and stuff!"

"Um, sure, I guess, when?" Lily asked.

"Oh, whenever, Jeanette and Heather and Gretchen and oh, damn, what's his name, that guy, Kevin? They're already here, so whenever you can, bye," Peggy said and hung up.

----

If Annie noticed that Gabriel hadn't spent ten minutes at home, she didn't show it. He'd driven home, dumped a few garbage bags of dirty laundry onto the floor of the laundry room, shoveled the dinner she'd prepared, and then bolted out of the house again.

She sighed tiredly as she cleaned the kitchen. It had been a long day; Lily's last day had been Tuesday, Latavius Jefferson's fist day had been Wednesday, and already, on Friday, she knew she would be firing the young man. He was arrogant to the point of being rude, and seemed a little too interested in the cash register for Annie's comfort.

He also leered at her, making her extremely uncomfortable.

He had been so polite, so well-mannered while filling out the application, while Annie interviewed him.

And Annie would not admit it but she had looked forward to her son's return, even if it was only for eleven days.

College seemed to have agreed with him, from the ten minutes she got to see of him. He was still a tall, muscular, handsome young man, but his face had slimmed down slightly; it was no longer a boy's face. He also seemed to exude a little more confidence, walk a little straighter.

Dishes done, Annie sat down and indulged in one of her few vices, a large can of beer. Schlitz sold beer in a sixteen ounce can, which was just perfect for Annie's thirst.

A handful of times, Annie had given in to the temptation to have more than one can, and once the second can was done, a third can quickly followed. Each time, Annie woke the next day with such remorse and self-loathing; she would not even entertain the thought of a beer for several weeks afterward. Then, she would tell herself that one wouldn't hurt, and for several weeks, sometimes months would go by. Then, she would give in and have a second can of beer, followed by oblivion.

The desire for a second can was there, quite strong, when she finished the first can, but Annie knew, with Gabriel home, she could not afford to have that second can.

----

"Hey!" Jeanette shrilled as Lily entered the Campion home.

"Hey!" Lily shrilled back.

The two friends caught up with each other; Jeanette had been busy working at the McDonald's in DeGarde all summer and planned to continue working there while she attended U.L.L.; Lily told Jeanette about working at Annie's.

"Yeah, my mom says they're like the best," Peggy said, horning in on the conversation.

"Listen," Peggy said, leaning close to the two girls and lowering her voice, "My old lady's here, so um, none of y'all need to be dragging nobody into my bedroom, all right? Y'all need to get busy, go find a car or something, all right?"

"Like I'm so sure!" Lily screeched, disgusted.

----

Gabriel left the movie, still depressed.

Coming home had depressed him. Seeing his mother, seeing her pudgy, tired, unhappy face had depressed him. Seeing that the town of Bender had not changed in the two and a half months he'd been gone depressed him.

"Aw, look at this shit, looks like they'll let just about any old faggot go to the movies these days, huh?" Steve Hebert mock-groaned.

"Faggot? Faggot? Dude, I'm not the one closes his eyes every time we kiss!" Gabriel laughed and hugged his friend.

Steve told Gabriel about the party at Peggy's house and Gabriel quickly agreed to meet Steve there.

"Yeah, dude, heard what's her name, aw, shit, uh, Jeanette! Yeah, heard Jeanette's going to be there," Steve said as he opened the door to his mother's car.

"And?" Gabriel asked, not understanding why Steve would bring her name into the conversation.

"Dude? You serious?" Steve asked.

"Uh, yeah," Gabriel responded.

"Dude, she's like, been going on and on about how you and her, y'all should have never broken up, she misses you and all that shit, says she's been sending you like fifty e-mails a day and shit. Course, you never answer any of them but..." Steve said.

"Aw, fuck, bet she's been sending them to my Yahoo," Gabriel laughed. "I don't even check it no more."

"Whatever, dude, you show up, bet you'll be tapping that before you can even say 'Hi,'" Steve said.

Gabriel shrugged.

Pussy was pussy; he'd been getting more than his fair share in Ruston, Louisiana. Carmen, even if she was an extremely promiscuous young lady, had taught him something very valuable. Ask, and thou shalt receive. Don't ask, and you probably won't ever get it.

He opened the door to his van and followed Steve to Peggy's house.

----

Lily couldn't help but be envious of Jeanette, Heather, and especially Peggy, as the three girls ran around the pool in their extremely skimpy bikinis. Marianne was the only other girl besides herself that was wearing a one piece bathing suit. Of course, Marianne also packed eighty extra pounds into her bathing suit.

"You don't look no better," Lily mumbled to herself, looking down at herself.

Her arms were hairy toothpicks; her legs were stubby little pencils. Even though she'd shaved them yesterday, her legs were covered in a dark pattern of stubble. Her breasts were small bumps, her belly ballooned out, and her butt was only slightly smaller than her belly.

Peggy had large breasts, a fact that was emphasized by her bikini top, barely more than a strap across her nipples. Heather also sported a nice pair of breasts, both with a liberal coating of freckles. Her bikini bottom was a thong and her rear end was deliciously rounded.

Jeanette, the only brunette of the trio, was also the slimmest of the trio, but still looked quite appealing in her bright red bikini.

"Hey!" Peggy called out and got out of the pool to greet two newcomers to the party.

Lily looked over and did a double take. Gabriel was walking out through the sliding glass door, looking happy, healthy, relaxed.

Peggy ran right past Steve Hebert and enveloped Gabriel in a very tight hug, plastering her large breasts against him and gluing her lips to his.

"Oh wow, you look great!" she enthused.

"You too," Gabriel smiled and casually let a hand drop to her rear end.

Peggy giggled and rubbed her rear end against his hand, letting him know that the touch was quite welcome.

"Uh yeah, good to see you too there, uh Peggy," Steve said, not upset at all.

"There's all kind of cokes and oh! We got some watermelon, and there's some chips, come on, I'll show you where everything is," Peggy cooed.

"You still got that van?" Peggy whispered as soon as they were inside the house.

"Yeah, still running, and it's paid for," Gabriel agreed.

"Okay," Peggy said and continued pulling him right through the house.

----

Annie grumbled when she heard the front door open and saw that it was one o'clock in the morning.

"Movie ran over?" she snapped at him as he made his way upstairs.

"Ran into a girl went to school with, went back to her house," Gabriel shrugged.

He waited for the inevitable insult, after the inevitable lecture of how inconsiderate he was. He wasn't disappointed.

"You are just like your father," Annie hissed after a tirade.

"Uh huh, genetics can be a bitch," Gabriel agreed, stunning Annie.

She reached out to slap him and again was stunned when he blocked the slap.

"Don't," was all he said.

"I am your mother," she shrilled.

"And thank you for the precious gift of life, but it still doesn't give you the right to hit me," Gabriel said.

"As long as you're living under my roof..." Annie shrilled.

"Bye," Gabriel said, turned and went back down the stairs.

"Gabriel, where do you think you're going?" she screamed at him.

"What the fuck does it matter to you?" Gabriel bellowed, again stunning Annie.

She tightened her robe around herself and stumbled down the stairs. She saw Gabriel hefting the two garbage bags of his dirty laundry and walking to the front door.

"Where do you think you're going?" she demanded again.

"Back to Tech. Good bye, Mother, it was fun, see you later, huh?" Gabriel said, opened the door, and left the house.

Gabriel decided that it was pointless to drive for four hours with no real destination in sight, so drove south on Highway 19, then took Highway 27 southeast until he saw the all night laundry mat.

"Ola," the middle aged woman intoned when Gabriel handed her a twenty dollar bill.

"Ola," he agreed and pointed to the small box of powdered detergent on the shelf behind her.

"Need change?" she asked.

"Please," he agreed and smiled tightly when she gave him ten dollars worth of change.

"Ten dollars for this, huh?" he muttered to himself, testing the weight of the detergent.

There was only one other customer, a heavy-set Latino woman that had taken four of the six washing machines for herself.

Gabriel sorted out his laundry and took the remaining two machines.

Six hours later, sun bearing down on the easterly windows of the laundry mat, Gabriel was finally folding the last of his clothes. Incredibly, the heavy-set woman was still washing clothes when Gabriel took his now washed, dried, and folded clothes out to the van.

----

"Oh, no ma'am, I don't mind at all!" Lily declared when Annie called her and asked her to come in.

Latavius did not take being fired very well and made a few threats against Annie and against the shop, but took his paycheck and slammed out of the small building.

Annie smiled tightly as Lily entered the building, dressed and ready for work.

"Yeah, Gabriel gets in at one o'clock in the morning; I think he was drunk or something," Annie rambled as she and Lily set up the store's displays.

Lily did express surprise when Annie recounted that morning's heated exchange, omitting quite a bit of her own words.

"Oh my God!" Lily agreed. "That doesn't sound, are you sure that's what he said?"

"Yep, tells me 'Bye,' he's going back to Tech," Annie agreed.

"Well, I'll e there myself in six days; you want me to tell him anything?" Lily offered.

"No, I'm sure he just needs to calm down," Annie said, without much conviction.

----

Because it had been a florist delivery van, the rear cargo hold of the van had air conditioning vents, so the twin sized mattress was actually quite comfortable for Gabriel to catch a few hours of sleep.

When he woke up, Gabriel did not like the way he smelled; he had not had a chance to clean himself up, other than a quick swab in the laundry mat's filthy bathroom. He knew it was his imagination, but he could swear he still smelled Peggy's scent on him.

He drove north, and then made a snap decision. Using the pay phone in front of Earl's Grocer's, he called Steve Hebert.

"Hey, if I come over and use your shower, you aren't going to get all weird and try to peek in on me, huh?" he asked when Steve finally answered the telephone.

"Well, yeah, I mean, it ain't like you got a dick or anything, right?" Steve said.

While he was at the grocery store, Gabriel bought a toothbrush, toothpaste, other toiletries, and a large bottle of laundry detergent.

"Ten dollars for a piss-ass little bitty box of detergent my ass," he muttered to himself as he carried all the items to the only working cash register in the store.

----

Lily looked over as she pulled onto Pine Grove Street and saw Gabriel's van in front of Steve Hebert's house.

"Miss Annie will be happy to hear he's still in town," Lily smiled, and then pulled over in front of the client's house.

When she turned back around, though, she saw Gabriel's van turn the corner onto Highway 52, driving toward Highway 19.

She decided not to say anything to Miss Annie; Gabriel may have just been saying good bye to a friend before leaving town.

Peggy was thrilled when Gabriel called her, asking her out to eat.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"What's that matter?" he asked, smiling. "You paying?"

He took her to Hop Kim's, a Chinese restaurant inKimble.