Chapter 3
Rafael and Abel”s house still looked the same as it did, except for a few changes. He and Rafael had made so many memories in that home, both good and bad. When Abel got out of jail, he was amazed that Rafael could keep it together all these years. The little two-room bungalow had gone through quite a bit over the years. The old screen door that Abel and Rafael used to race each other through in the summers was gone, and in its place was a new screen door that slammed shut on its own whenever he walked through it. The windows were still the same, old and drafty. Someone had repainted the shutters, so they didn”t look as old as they were. Someone had patched the roof a few times, and the front porch was still white, even though the paint was peeling. When Abel first got home, he thought the house looked like a kind of imposter to the one he”d grown up in, painted in spots and patched up, even a little smaller than Abel remembered, but regardless nothing was like home, and he was glad to be back home after being gone for ten years.
That day, he came home hours earlier and expected to see Rafael sitting in the front living room. When he wasn”t there, he counted his lucky stars and went to the kitchen to get a drink. Rafael had just gone to the grocery store and bought Abel”s favorite; Ham and cheese sandwiches with an ice-cold root beer.
Sitting in the kitchen, he thought about how he”d managed to screw up such an easy opportunity. Camilla was a good teacher, and he was a quick learner. Fortunately, Learning how to make pizza was child”s play. It might have worked out great if she wasn”t breathing down his neck every second.
He took his sandwich and soda pop out to the back porch and sat on the step, trying to figure out how he would tell Rafael that he had messed up. It wasn”t his fault, he decided. Camilla was content harping at her staff and micromanaging Abel. Abel was not that guy, and Camilla wanted to ride his back the whole time. He could not work under those circumstances. Surely, Rafael would understand.
About halfway through his drink, he wondered where he had met Camilla. She seemed familiar to him; he had met her before he went to jail and did not remember. The neighborhood wasn”t big, and he imagined that if he hadn”t gone to prison, Abel might know where he”d seen her before or maybe even her family. Abel wondered if his brother and Camilla had dated, and perhaps that was the connection. Although Camilla was a tough cookie to crack, it did not change the fact that he thought she was pretty and, in some ways, was attracted to her.
He heard the front door open as he finished his sandwich and drink. He waited, listening for Rafael to come into the kitchen, silently rehearsing what he would say about his day. Then, a second or so later, he heard the back door creak open, and Rafael said, ”Hey, ”mano.”
”Hey,” Abel responded.
”So,” he said, coming outside and sitting next to him. ”How was your first day?”
Abel found himself smiling and diverting the nervous energy written all over his face for impending doom. ”Bad.”
Rafael cocked his head. ”Bad? Bad how?”
Abel took a breath and said, ”Me and Ms. Nunez do not get along. She was all down my back about everything. ”Get the orders right,” ”Say the orders back to me.”” He shook his head and looked down at his empty drink, wishing he had grabbed two sandwiches.
”So?” said Rafael. ”She is the boss. She”s supposed to break your jewels. That”s what bosses do. It will be better tomorrow.”
Abel paused. Better to tell him and rip the Band-Aid off. ”I”m not going back.”
Rafael glared at him. ”Excuse me?”
”She was too hard on me, okay, for no reason. I was doing good. I got all the orders out, and I got them all right, and nobody complained, but I guess that was not enough—”
”Just tell me you didn”t quit,” he said. ”Abel. Tell me you did not quit.”
Abel didn”t say anything for a moment, and Rafael scoffed, swearing in Spanish. Abel half expected him to smack him on the back of his head.
”You idiot!” he said. ”Did you forget it is part of your parole to have a job, stupid? So, you need a job, or they”ll put you back in jail.”
”I”ll get another job.”
”Where?? ”Mano, you were in for a felony charge. Nobody is going to hire a felon fresh out of the joint. I cannot believe you right now.”
”Raf—”
”I handed you a job, Abel. Handed it to you, and this is how you treat it?” He stopped himself, getting up and pacing behind him on the porch. Abel turned around to him.
”Somebody else has got be hiring, Raf. It cannot be that hard.”
”It is,” said Rafael. ”Trust me. Okay?”
Abel did not respond to that. Instead, he just watched his brother pace angrily back and forth.
”You”re going back there,” he said finally. ”Tonight.”
”No, I”m not—”
”You are going back there tonight!” he shouted. ”After everything that”s happened, do you think I”m going to let you just put yourself back in jail? Huh? Do you think I”m going to let that happen? No, sir. You are going back there, and you will apologize to Camilla if I must drag you there myself.”
Abel felt his face flush hot with embarrassment and shame. Rafael was trying to make things right between them. He could see that. He looked away from him, ashamed for walking out on the job just because Ms. Nunez was on his case.
”Do you hear me, Abel?”
”Yeah,” he said. ”Yeah, I hear you just fine. I will go back.”
”Good.”
Abel stood up and walked past him, then through the house and out the door on his way back to the pizzeria.
***
The walk was about five minutes or so from his house. He would have asked Rafael to drive him, but having to grovel for his job was embarrassing enough without Rafael dragging him inside the restaurant by the ear.
On the walk back, the heaviness of his shame and pride was more than he could carry. What he did was stupid and childish, and in the end, it would be a shame if he did not return because he could not get along with his boss. He was going to have plenty of other bosses in his future. One worse than Camilla Nunez. He would have to learn to suck it up and get with the program if he was going to adjust to the outside world. Anyways, he endured even worst in prison.
When he got to the restaurant, the first thing he noticed was that somebody had flipped the Closed sign on the door. He looked at his watch. It was just barely after six. The restaurant did not close for four more hours. He tried the door, and it opened. It must be a mistake.
He walked in and turned to the door, intent on flipping it back around to Open, when he heard someone say behind him, ”Hey! Don”t you move!”
He looked over his shoulder to see a man in a ski mask and a gun. The man pointed the gun at Camilla, who was standing with her hands up in front of the counter, trying to hold her composure. Abel momentarily diverted the gunman”s attention when he walked into the restaurant.
Abel put his hands up slowly and turned to face him. ”No problem,” he said. ”No problem at all.”
Camilla was shaking. Her aqua-blue eyes looked watery in the amber light as if she might burst into tears at any second. Camilla looked at Abel pleadingly. Run, she seemed to be saying. At that moment, The Gunman noticed the restaurant was empty. Had she told everyone to go home??
”Don”t worry about him,” she said in a shaky voice. ”Worry about me. Focus on me, okay? I”m the one you want to pay attention to.”
The robber whirled back around to her and shouted, ”Shut up!” Camilla jumped at the sound of his voice. ”Okay, okay,” she whimpered.
Abel inched closer to the robber behind his back but stopped as soon as the robber turned back around to him. ”You picked the wrong day to get a pizza, my friend,” the robber said to Abel. Then, he stalked over, grabbed Abel by the collar, and put the gun to his head.
”Get that cash register open, now,” he growled at Camilla, ”Or else I blow this guy”s brains all over the wall!”
Camilla stepped back, her hands still up, and moved to the cash register.
”This is a bad idea,” said Abel.
”What?” said the robber,” Shut your mouth!”
”Okay, okay, but I think you”re doing this all wrong. Despite whatever you heard, there is not much money in the restaurant business, Especially this one.”
The robber chuckled. ”You must not be from around here,” he said. ”This place does good business every night. The place stays packed with customers from Monday to Saturday. I know she has money stashed somewhere around here.”
”Yeah, okay,” said Abel. ”But you”re going for the cash register instead of the safe in the back. How smart is that?”
The robber went silent, and his eyes bounced around momentarily, looking at Camilla as she shakily opened the cash registers. ”Y-yeah,” he said. He took the gun off Abel and pointed it at Camilla. ”When you get done with that, we”re going to the back and getting the safe—”
Abel grabbed and twisted his wrist, making the robber release the gun. The robber yelped in pain as the gun fell out of his hand and across the floor. Abel yanked his arm back, elbowed him in the face in the next breath, and wrestled the robber to his knees. Abel kicked the gun across the room and told Camilla, ”Call the cops. I got him.”
He stood with his fists ready in case the robber decided to get back up and fight him. But instead, the robber rolled around on the floor, his hand over his face as blood leaked through the mask.
”I think you broke my nose!”
”I broke your nose,” Abel responded. ”I should break your face open; how dare you come in here with a gun? If I were you, I would shut up and stay still.”
The robber put his hands up, staring at him fearfully from behind the mask. ”All right, all right. You got it, man. You got it.”