"Dude! Im telling ya!"
"Fausto keep your voice down. We don't want to cause any attention", calmly says John as he takes a slow sip from his mug of beer. Paul looks at both of them from the other side of the table with confusion, he asks,"So what about Isaac?" Paul looks over to John and asks,"Did you find the guy?"
"No, the only information on his emergency contact card was his mother's phone number and home address", says John. "And?", persist Paul.
"Well, his mom passed away last year. So his emergency card was useless and I guess the idiot never updated it", says John disappointedly as he takes another sip from his mug. He wipes away the leftover beer from his mustache and continues, "Either way, I'm sure his mother's passing has to do with what happened today.
"How?!", drunkenly asks Fausto.
"Yeah, how?", calmly asks Paul. "Think about it, the way he was acting today wasn't normal for just about anyone. It looked like he was under the influence of something, not alcohol but maybe some kind of drug. Do any of you know if he was a user?"
Paul and Fausto look at each other in suspense of what the other's answer is but they ended just nodding their heads no. "Fausto? Are you sure, I mean you went out to drink with the guy a couple of times right?"
"Yeah but I only went because my ex was friends with his girlfriend", Fausto says unenthusiastically. Pauls asks John "what does him being a user and losing his mother have to do with it?"
"If I were to lose my mother, I'd eat myself to death. So I would imagine that if you lose your mother you'd take your vices a little farther too, right? Especially for someone like Isaac" answers John.
"Yeah, he did have his mom under his emergency contact", agrees Paul. Fausto follows up,"That's true, he has been with that girl for about 7 years? That sounds about right, 7 years"
"7 years and he stills puts his mom under his contact. What a real mama's boy", John mocks. "What's wrong with being a mama's boy, don't you love your mama?", Fausto's jokingly says to John.
"What if we are reading too much into it and he still has his mom because he just hasn't updated it?" asks Paul. "Could be but we update those emergency contacts annually, remember?", tells John.
Fausto says," So does that mean he still put his mom under his contact list even after she passed?" John just looks at him and says nothing.
Paul says," That's creepy.."
"You got that right", agrees Fausto.
Paul asks, "Do you think his girlfriend would know something?"
"Even if she did, she can't really talk without her tongue", says Fausto. "She can try to write sure but Isaac broke both of her wrist when she was manhandling her. Not only that, but the police have a tight watch on her so we can't exactly go an ask her" he continues.
"Probably to see if Isaac showed?", asked Paul
"Maybe. I don't doubt it", replies John. "What about your ex?"
"What about my ex?", asks Fausto.
"Can you ask to see if maybe we can find something out."
"About that...", nervously says Fausto as he shuffles his mug in his hand. "I kind of don't know where she is and she doesn't pick up my calls. But you know, maybe we shouldn't care too much, I mean the police are involved. I'm sure they'll find Isaac and bring his ass in."
"Fausto, do you want another mug?"asks Paul.
"Why do you asks?"
"You sound a little too rational, I think maybe you're sobering up", mockingly says Paul.
"Go to hell but... yeah please, can you bring me another drink?"
Fausto drunkenly stumbles back home from the bar even though both John and Paul offer to walk him back home. After all he was right, he left his key's back in his locker at work and there was more alcohol waiting for him back home. So he jovially walked home, humming an old piece of classical music from one of his favorite movies, the mad revolver.
The movie itself was about a cop and his partner that had gone rogue and started working above the law in their spare time. Even though they both suffered in the name of justice, the movie brought a lot of joy to Fausto in his youth, even though he knew that things like that weren't real. The Idea that someone wrote the story was enough for him. He's seen the movie hundreds of time and in every viewing, Fausto would be filled with such a righteous excitement but as time passed on, the feeling faded.
Now he was just stuck with the tune of the credits and he hummed it all the way back to his apartment.
Fausto nearly fell down his apartment stairs as he climbed up them but he made sure to not make that much noise; he didn't want to wake up Alora. He jangled his keys to the door and quickly got in. Fausto took a look around his dirty apartment and felt there was a need to clean up. Despite this, he just shrugged it off to take a shower.
After a hard day's work, the hot water running down the shower head filled him with a much needed relaxation. It has become a ritual for Fausto since he was a young man to take a hot shower and kill two tall cans while cleaning his body. Although years had come and gone it remained one of his favorite ways to relax, especially when he became part of the work force. Sometimes some coworker would ask if he would drink that Friday night and Fausto would give a wishy-washy answer, even though he fully knew he would and most definitely get sloshed by the end of the night. Still, he just saw it as way to relax, with everything going on in his life. Well actually, Fausto had a lack of movement in his life. It felt like life for him took a sharp turn and tipped over, now it is just waiting for the vultures to come and pick at what's left, or at least, that's how he saw it.
There was a time when he came back from work and came across an abnormally large cat, "I saw a really fat cat, it was this big!" Fausto says to Rachel as he extends his arms outward. "It was probably long as your hair, babe", said Fausto.
Fausto would leave a piece of bread outside of his door before he would go to work. When he would return, he would fine that the piece was missing, "That cat came back", he would tell Rachel with excitement. "Are you sure someone else saw the piece and just threw it out?", asked Rachel. "Huh... I guess I never thought about it", Fausto said.
So on his next day off, he decided to do a stakeout to see if the cat was the true culprit. Fausto's plan? Leave the door open and wait in front of it for the whole day. He waited and waited and waited for some more but surely enough the large cat came to get the bread.
Fausto tried to pet the cat. However, the cat just ran away. Regardless he thought to himself that if he feeds the cat enough times, it will gain his trust and allow Fausto to pet it. So with an immense amount of determination and bag full of bread, Fausto would leave a piece everyday for the cat before his day of work and he spend his day thinking if the cat was going to get it.
One day, the piece of bread was there. Fausto decided to leave it there just in case the cat was running late for its meal. The next day, the piece was still there and the day after that. So Fausto decided to remove that piece of bread and leave out a new fresh piece.
"I don't want to upset you Tweedy but, I don't think that cat is going to come back", Rachel told him after the 6th day. Fausto didn't say anything to him because he was also thinking the same thing but still he waited. He continued to leave the piece of bread for a couple of days more.
Then one day when he returned from work, the piece was gone. He ran inside of his apartment excited to tell Rachel, "Babe! Babe! The cat, the cat came back." Rachel looks at him with a sad look on her face and she tells him, "I'm sorry, don't get mad at me but It didn't come back, I threw the piece away."
Fausto looks back at the memory and thinks to himself why did the days go by so much faster then. He takes a sip of his beer and puts a cigarette in his mouth but doesn't light it. He looks around his dirty apartment and takes another sip. The thought occurs; even though he didn't get what he wanted, it was nice loving something from afar.