Paul looks around and asks Fausto, "Hey Faust, are you sure we are in the right spot?" Fausto doesn't say anything because he is still in shock in what happened. Paul continues, "why would he leave us behind?... Hey, should we say something... to the cops or something, you know about what we saw in the forest?" Fausto doesn't say anything, he just looks at Paul like he wants to cry. "Ok I'll call them right now." Paul takes out his cell phone and quickly puts it away. He has no connection. "Can I borrow your phone?", he asks Fausto. He reaches for his pocket and feels that it's empty. "I must of dropped it back in the forrest and there is no way I am going back in there", says Fausto.
They both begin to make their way back into the city along the stretch of road. "Hey, Im hungry", says Fausto. Paul's stomach rumbles and replies, "Yeah me too." Fausto says to him, "Let's go get food before we go to the police, otherwise we might not be able to eat the whole day." Paul agrees. "So little time, so much to do...", murmurs Fausto to himself.
"Man that asshole John! Why did he leave us behind?!", angrily yells Paul as the sun begins to beat down on them. "Hey man, the angrier you get, the thirstier you get", says Fausto. "Is that some drunk trick?", asks Paul. "Not everything about me has to do with alcohol. It's something my dad taught me or actually it's something I learned from watching him", says Fausto. "Oh yeah? Was your dad also some angry drunk?", off-handly says Paul. Fausto looks over at Paul with disappointment and says, " Angry? Yeah. Drunkard? No".
Paul says, "Sorry, it was a joke."
"Yeah I know", says Fausto, "It's fine."
There is awkward silence between them, Fausto decides to tell a story about him and his dad, "I don't know if you could really call my dad the angry sort, I think what would describe him better is the word passionate. He was the kind that if you got him to talk, he won't stop talking and after all those years, I wouldn't know how to tell him I had something else to do", chuckles Fausto. "I was in high school and it was around the time of taking midterms. I woke up early just to get an extra hour of studying, eat, wash my ass... I was really preparing to ace this test. Came time to eat my breakfast and I just scarfed it down, Im talking I didn't get to enjoy it."
"What does this have to do with your dad?"
"I'll get to it, don't you want background in your story first?", asks Fausto with a smirk.
"No, I rather you get to the story."
"I'm sure your popular in bed then... Anyways, Im eating... I was eating, I think I was eating blueberry oatmeal. Or was it raspberry... Maybe banana", says Fausto with a smile. "Are you just trying to piss me off now?", giggles Paul. "Hey remember what I said, being angry makes you thirstier", laughs Fausto.
"So I'm there destroying my food, and down comes my dad from his room. He sits across from me on the table and he clearly looks upset. I think to myself that maybe he got into fight with my mom or maybe at work or something, you know. He looks at me and says you remember the band The Phonics? I tell him no. He says yes you do, it's that one oldie bands that me and your mom like", says Fausto as he rubs the sweat from his forehead.
"I tell him ok yeah, just so he can stop bothering me. He tells me the lead singer died, apparently he caught some sort of lung disease and he passed away shortly after. He tells me that he had a beautiful voice and the story that him and my mom went to their concert when they were younger. He was basically reminiscing and he wouldn't stop. I try to sneak into the conversation, if thats what you want to call it, that I had to go, I told him that I had to prepare for a test. But this man would not listen."
Paul with a smirk asks, "Then?"
"Well because of my dad, I ended being late to school and I had to retake my test that following Saturday", says Fausto as he is laughing. "Damn man, I bet that band wasn't even that good", says Paul, "Did you tell them why you were late?"
"No, what would I tell them. Im late to an important test because some old fart died. It wasn't all that bad though, in hindsight, it gave me more time to study", says Fausto.
Will You Let Me Down, Please?
To let the one I love down
Is just part of the territory
The deep lines within our life blood
To our ancestors deep in the ground
Nothing, Nothing
The escape of expectations
Placed upon our shoulders and foreheads
How can we fight our traditions
When we were damned from the second
We took our first breath
In front of me is you
But in front of you
Is it really me?
I could no longer tell
-Fausto Merlo