GIRABALDI
What happens with love
As I peered into my back window I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Three strangers sitting at my kitchen table, well to be precise two at my table, and one sitting on my couch.
“ It comes furnished?”
“ Yes everything you see is included with the lease"
“Okay then yes yeah I want it then. You got this right”, she said to the lady sitting at the table. The woman nodded affirmatively.
“ Okay, okay great and I can move in,?”
“ you can sleep here tonight if you want,” the man said to the woman on the couch.
“You can prorate that right? Then start the full lease payment on the first. Joe does it all the time.
The girl at the table pulled out her calculator and a check registry. “Here is a check for 300 dollars prorated to the first. Here’s two vouchers for the months of May and Junes rent. You know how this works Henry you’ll receive your rent via check in a few weeks. Any worries you know what to do. Sign here, sign here, sign here, done!
Looks like I just got a new roommate. Let’s see how long this one lasts I thought.
The trailer was dated and the yard was cluttered but it was my space. It was chilly inside and dark. I didn’t have the energy it took to pull the shades and bring the Sun inside. The dampness stained the wood. The only sun route showered bright diamonds on the wall that sparkled with a violet hue on the mismatched wood paneling.
My life up until a few years ago had been spent at the car dealership. I hadn’t had time for the little things. Smell the roses they would say and I wouldn’t even have time to say what flowers. I was always on to the next one. As soon as the last delivery left the lot they were just another conquest. I was on to the next online listings and chasing leads became my obsession.
I was king of bringing people in and even closing but my stats on my clients staying in their vehicles was abysmal.
The clients just didn’t understand when I told them I could get them into anything, I meant it. I didn’t mind a few uncrossed t’s to get it done. They get their fantasy ride and I move on long before they realize the deal was far too good to be true, because it was. No matter how hard they scrambled unless they can become their doppelganger they cannot make the payments.
My return customer came only once.
Pissed off due to a bad contract he calmly knocked on my office door. “You got a sec?”
“Oh well, honestly Wallace I don’t”. “Yeah you do”, and with that, he confidently reached down to a side holster and pulled his 357 out. No need for anything fancy when your target is three yards in front of you. Wallace shot me twice. One went straight through my third eye and the other my foot as he nervously dropped the weapon after the kill shot.
There was no time to react. I rose above my body and watched Wallace reholster his piece and walk out the front door. No one knew what happened to me.
I was found by my next client. He turned the corner into my back office area and let out a yelp when he saw the sunlight shining through my forehead.
“Holy Hell I heard of cowboy justice before but .”
“Oh hey you Darlene come on now let’s go. This clown is asleep". So they left.
The following morning my body was discovered. The police arrived after receiving several calls for unsafe driving in luxury vehicles none insured, all with dealer plates. Seems as if my death had set up a party for the town’s teenagers who could never afford my vehicles. Truthfully, no one could with the exorbitant after-charges that weren’t apparent until the first mortgage payment was missed due to the car note.
The cops secured the dealership and lot. The kids didn’t go further than the key-peg so none of them knew they could have been an accessory to homicide. They didn’t care what Girabaldi Motors was up to they just wanted to drive a nice BMW.
So for years now I’ve just been hanging around the trailer. After my untimely death, the dealership was seized for tax evasion. My murder was reclassified as an untimely accident and had been placed on the back burner by the local police department.
I had never been more popular than the week of my demise. People came out of the woodwork to claim Wallace’s handiwork as their own.
I was cremated two days after I was found. No funeral or memorial service for me I didn’t care. I was a lone wolf on Earth and my death proved it.
“Look at this", she said to herself pulling a whole basket out from under the sink. “ what’s in here?”
I watched her as she rustled through the basket pulling out empty boxes and a screen for the front door.
“ Oh cool a radio and it’s analog too bonus let’s see" she stood up with the radio in her hands and turned to the kitchen table. Above the table on the wall was a surge protector.
“Please work", she pleaded to no one.
The radio jumped to life blinking 1200 and blasting static. She turned it down, flipped a button, and rolled the dial through the stations.
“ No church on the radio please. oh car commercials — all applications accepted. blah blah blah. no cars salesman ever goes to heaven I bet.” she said aloud.
“ The wolf ,” she blurted out.
“ That’s my station ,” I thought.
The familiar chords of John Cougar Mellencamp filled the room. Oh my God music. My spirit stirred inside of me.
“Every song they all sound the same. This one’s illogical in every way”.
What is she saying? What those aren’t the words. Stop singing! Who is this heathen woman in my trailer?
She settled into unpacking. The windows were open and the still cold air inside found itself moving out of the trailer.
Taking care of business everyday. “You know it no one else will,” she reply to the lyric.
She continued setting up house singing and interjecting with the radio as she progressed.
“Well look at that purple aura streaming through the window. Thank you God for giving me angels. You know I’ll take that stuff everyday.”
“Angel ,laugh out loud, you got that backwards", I thought.
“Oh man what’s up with that huh?”, and then I heard silence .click. noise. click .silence.
“Oh yeah, the hour timer on these old radios. Whatever that’s fine until I get Wi-Fi in here. Yeah okay God now I know that I have angels I’ll be okay but that’s enough commercial radio for one day.”
She sat on my couch and pulled her phone out of her back pocket. “Yeah this phone mobile data is sketchy sketch here. Yes God thank you for the radio and books”.
She closed the windows and threw the curtains closed.
“I need to get some of these monkeys out.’ She pulled her earbuds out of the nightstand in the back bedroom.
“Still freezing back here oh but look at all that purple coming through. Damn hey there spirit watch the house.”
“Okay ,like duh, watch my own house,” I thought.
So we went on like this for a while her living in my trailer, no scandal or chaos.
She would talk to God a lot. In between making up her own lyrics to my favorite songs, slamming car dealership commercials, and general mumbling she would talk to God.
“Why God this ,why God that ,what should I do please give me a sign. Oftentimes God himself would appear in streams of blinding light through her back window.
“o
Okay okay God dang You’re bright", she would giggle like a child. “ I got it.”
Sometimes it wasn’t as obvious and she would pray. I would silently lower my head and listen not wanting to appear like a stalker as I observed her struggles from above.
“Well look at all the spirits coming around me hello there,” as a purple light streamed onto her. “Thanks for protecting me I appreciate all y’all.”
One late morning there was a ruckus in the yard.
“ Good God what is going on", she said. Jumping to her feet she rushed to the front door where the whole murder was loudly warning cat cat cat. She looked over to the right where the smaller birds hung out on the wire fencing left over from previous yard projects. They were quiet and still. She stepped out the door and took about three steps into the yard.
“Oh well hello there pretty kitty what are you doing?” she took another step forward.
“What the fudge is that?”and she stopped.
“ Okay okay, hey Kitty kitty let’s redirect your steps. she approached the cat. He looked at her and bolted towards the open back gate. She followed him and closed the gate. “Mice not birds okay kitty?”.
She hurried back to the front yard and bent down.
“Show yourself", she said.
There was a flustering coming from some piled up debris and yard ornaments.
Out came a little crow .
“What’s up with you baby,?” she said .
“Oh no your wing, Don’t flap it, is it broken? crap hang on! Are you hungry or thirsty,”? she bustled off into the house.
She quickly returned with a bowl of water placing it on the ground midway between them.
“Are you hungry little guy?”, she tossed him a large piece of sandwich. “ Oh that’s too big”. She tossed him a smaller piece.
That’s when she looked up and noticed all the crows watching this.
“ Hey guys, hi I got you too". She walked closer to the house broke the remaining sandwich into smaller morsels and threw them on the roof.
“Okay I’ll be right back guys.”
She left the yard.
“Oh my God Baby Boi what in the world? Come on this way" ,she was trying to shoo him back in the yard. There he was hopping in the driveway with a huge piece of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his mouth.
“Dude were you looking for me I told you I would be back. You get back into the yard", she closed the gate behind them.
“Well here’s some popcorn too”, she reached into the grocery bag and pulled out a bag of smart food. She made a trail back to the water bowl.
“You stay close one wing”.
“I didn’t forget you guys, here,” she looked up as she sprinkled popcorn throughout the yard.
“You all play nice all right I got stuff to do.”
For the next few days she monitored Baby Boi watching to make sure he ate drank and of course no cat. Then one morning she came out and he wasn’t ground hopping.
“Baby Boi", she called.
“Caw", he answered .
She turned quickly and looked perplexed.
“Where oh Baby Boi look at you your wing. Are you healed baby?”, she inquired
“Well now who is your friend ,” she inquired. “I don’t think I’ve met him".
“Girabaldi” I thought.
“Hey there Gerri, welcome to my home", she said to me.
“You want to go on a fly with us?”
“That’s cool right Baby Boi”, she went and got her headphones.
“Okay everyone who wants to come", she bounded off her front steps and skipped to the gate.
“Baby Boi, Gerri you coming?”
I ran to the end of the roof and leapt straight up into the air. I lifted my wings and opened them. “I’m going to go take a fly with my friend”,I thought.
I swirled and caught wind and twirled high above her head singing my happiest caws and trills for the new life I had just accepted.
