I could tell Doris was ready to blow a fuse by the way her eyes narrowed at the boy; so I said, "Doris I got the kid's food, take it easy. He ain't from around here; according to him he's from 522 ancient Rome or somewhere, so cut him some slack."
I took the last couple of swallows from my coffee cup and got up from my booth. I gave Doris a twenty and went out the front door. I turned around and there was the kid coming up behind me.
"Hey, thanks man. I really didn't have any money on me, but I was willing to work it off. I was just hitchhiking across country and ended up here. Anyway, the food wasn't that good, but thanks."
I cleared my throat and answered back, "Sometimes you got to tell the difference between people who want to believe and people who ain't got time for your bullshit. Doris there, is one of them that ain't got time for the bullshit."
"Well, anyway, thanks for picking up the check. I guess I'll head on out. You going far?"
I looked the boy over and decided I didn't want to get any more involved than I already had. He looked like one them kids that would never understand.
"Naw, I'm just heading home. It ain't far. You take care."
The kid slung his back pack over his shoulder and hitched up his torn jeans and started off down the road. He looked at me like maybe I should of kept on helping him. I was through being a Good Samaritan for the day.
I went around back and got into my old truck and started her up. "OK girl, let's see. The kid got me thinking about ancient Rome. What you say we make a trip there and see what's going on."
"Roger that sir. Setting course to 522 BC. Sit back and enjoy the ride. We'll be there in the blink of an eye."
A Killer Smile
If You Only Knew
PAULA DODSON STOOD knee-deep in rubbish. Not just any ordinary rubbish, but patterned sleeves, a chocolate colored pants leg, yards of billowing cloth, and a busted sewing machine among other things. A dress with an expensive lace insert in the bodice that she had labored over for days, lay slashed and shredded on the floor. Ribbons, buttons and even zippers, were ripped out by the seams, just like her shattered heart.
This was all that was left of her small but prosperous clothing shop in the east end of London. The shop’s now useless contents had a deranged but methodical look of ordered mutilation. She bent down and picked up a severed arm from the mannequin she used to drape expensive satins and silks on. Her life flashed before her eyes.
She was a plain woman, entering her thirty-ninth year of life. An uninteresting woman upon first glance, but she had a special talent. She could coax spectacular fashions from simple pieces of cloth.
But most of all, she was a sorceress of unique abilities. Often were the times she dreamed of using her abilities to garner favor with the opposite sex. But she wanted true love, a man to accept her for what she was, not what he wanted her to be.
Her soon to be ex, Stanley, slip-sliding in and out of her life like a greased snake was once her greatest love. She felt desirable and special at first. Such a good-looking man was interested in her. He courted her obsessively. He wined and dined her, presenting her with small trinkets that caught her eye with its shiny coatings.
Folks said she was so lucky (at her age) to get such a catch. Knowing smiles of their own, hidden behind fluttering hands and whispered double meanings. They gave her the side-eye, smirking to themselves at what naughtiness she must be doing to keep a man such as Stanley complacent.
All the while he smiles at her with that killer smile. The one that made her heart flutter and her womanly parts melt in expectation. Wide sensual lips, spread over white even teeth. A full-frontal of gleaming pearly perfection. To be honest the smile was the best thing about Stanley.
He came and went as was his due. She thought to just get a little of his time was a great boon.
Her mother said, "Paula, I just don't know. Stanley reminds me of a used car seller. Always trying to gloss over the dents and cracks in his exterior. All the while ignoring the slow sputtering engine, the choking exhaust system and the many, many owners who abused it."
Paula ignored her mother's words and warnings. She knew she was lucky to get such a man. A man with a killer smile. No he didn't keep his word sometimes, but he was a busy business man. An entrepreneur who oversaw a lucrative import export business.
Her father with a worried frown voiced his unasked for opinion. "The man is just plain no good. He looks like a cheater and an abuser. You don't need someone like him in your life."
He minced no words when it came to his only daughter's welfare but Paula argued back in Stanley's defense.
"You don't know him as I do. Just try to get along for my sake, please daddy, please."
So her father tried to get along for his daughter's sake. All the while shaking his head, wishing Stanley would simply disappear out of his daughter's life. He was so distraught, he even thought to bribe him to leave.
Standing at the altar, him bending over to place the ring (she
