Lisa made sure the last of the chickens was inside the coop and then closed the door. Sometimes she had lost chickens during storms and she didn't want to take a chance. She got to the garage door just as it started to rain. A large man was standing under the eaves. She was startled at first and then she recognized him. Her stomach felt as unsettled as the rumbling sky, and she decided not to turn on the garage light. She hoped she wouldn't cry.
"Hello Fabian."
"Lisa, what's wrong?"
"I don't know what you mean." In her eyes, he saw hurt, even in the dim light that the storm allowed. A flash of lightning revealed that he had betrayed her, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out how. A sudden gust of wind cut through what had been almost oppressive heat, another announcement of the storm to come.
"You've been avoiding me," he said.
"I've been busy. And I'm sure you have more interesting things to occupy you."
"I thought we were friends."
"We are." The air was full of the sharp smell of wet asphalt as rain splattered heavily on the hot driveway. Lisa had always loved that smell but she knew that after this it would forever remind her of Fabian.
"Friends see each other sometimes. And I was hoping that maybe being friends could turn into more."
"I was afraid of that," she sighed. "Fabian, you're a nice guy. A lot nicer than I expected you to be." How strange it was to use the very words she had heard so often from guys in the past. "But I'm not interested in more. I'm afraid you were getting the wrong idea." With a roar, the rain began to pound the metal gutters and metal roof of the garage. It sounded like a very bad line of snare drums doing rolls.
"Lisa, you know as well as I do that we were starting something pretty special." He had to raise his voice to be heard. She raised hers also.
"I don't know what makes you say that. I'm just ordinary. I can't be what you want."
"You are far from ordinary and you are already what I want!" He reached out to touch her face and she backed up, instinctively knowing that if she let him touch her, she would never have the courage to do this. The storm was now directly overhead. The lightning flashed like a strobe light and the thunder bellowed, echoing in the garage. It was like arguing in a disco.
"Fabian, really. I'm not what you're looking for. I'll listen if you ever need to talk to someone, but it isn't going to be more than that." The wind felt almost icy and for the first time in a long time, Fabian felt cold. Cold all the way to the bone.
"Bruiser is going to miss you." Even as he said it, he knew it was a cheap shot, but he was desperate.
"Bruiser is a dog, Fabian. He'll forget me soon enough. You will, too." She turned and headed for the stairs at the back of the garage, ascending them quickly before a flash of lightning could reveal the tears she could no longer hold back.
He heard the door to her apartment open, then close and lock. He left the garage, grateful for the darkness and the downpour. He'd been with the carnival since he was small, and injuries were just part of the job. He'd missed a whole year of school due to rheumatic fever. This was the first time he'd had his heart broken, and he thought it was the worst, most painful injury he'd ever had to endure.
The Frog Pond? That place is a dive! Usually, people around here just go to the bar at the Tavern. We don't cross the river to that place.
The bar was dark and smelled musty. There was little light other than neon beer signs, televisions, and a juke box. The storm outside had moved farther away; the thunder now sounded like a mild case of indigestion. The atmosphere in the bar was depressing and suited Fabian perfectly. He played with the beer bottles on the table.
She hadn't come close enough for him to read her eyes beyond hurt, betrayal, and a trace of fear. He couldn't figure out what he'd done. His chest ached; he felt as though she had excised his still-beating heart like an Aztec sacrifice. Not maliciously, but almost innocently, as though she didn't realize it would be fatal to him and thought it might be the cure for her fears.
The booth shifted as someone sat across from him. Fabian slowly looked up, then did a double-take. It was Dante Carrillo. The beer signs reflected oddly on Dante's shiny shaved head and made his earring sparkle. At least to Fabian's beer-soaked vision it did.
"I'm sorry, kid," Dante said.
"What for? I'm the one who's sorry," Fabian replied, trying to figure out which bottle still had beer in it. "I am very, very sorry."
"Marlene is poison. I should have warned you a long time ago. She wants what she wants and doesn't care what damage she does. I was afraid she was going to wreck your life."
"You think this was about Marlene?" Fabian couldn't find the bottle that still contained beer. He wasn't even sure how many bottles there were at this point. He waved to the bartender. Dante looked at the bartender and held up two fingers.
"Isn't it? You had a nice girl for a change and Marlene found a way to chase her off."
"I don't know. Franco thinks it's something else. And why aren't you trying to kill me?"
"What for? Occupying my wife so she leaves me alone?" Dante lit a cigarette. "You have a point -- I should have stopped it. But not because of jealous husband stuff. I don't care what she does most of the time. In this case ... she was going to ruin your life. All I could do was keep her away from you while you were at school. I owed you that much. During the summer, I thought it was probably a lesson you needed to learn. Life is like an apartment." He took a drag of his cigarette. "Some people move in and plant stuff and paint and fix the place up. Other people move in and destroy the place. Marlene trashes lives like a rock star in a hotel room."
"So does Franco," Fabian said. "Maybe we should get them together."
"I don't think that would work, kid." The bartender arrived and placed a beer bottle in front of each. He took the empties, leaving one bottle that was still half full.
"There it is!" Fabian crowed.
"So what are you doing in here, anyway?"
"I don't want to go home. There's a dog in my vardo."
"I'm sure there is. The dog belongs to you. Why would you suddenly have a problem with that?"
Fabian's eyes filled with tears and he ducked his head.
"That's how we met," he said. "She liked Bruiser." He picked up the half-full bottle and chugged the contents.