Learning to Fall

Deep breath, Frankie... deep breath

For some reason breathing was a difficult thing for me to do today. I have no idea why dropping Sophia off this morning was so hard for me. I was happy she was in a safe place, instead of being home with her drunk of a mother all day. I shudder to think how awful it must have been for her...

I shoved those thoughts out of my head and continued driving to the UPS store so I could pick up my truck and my packages for the day, when my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. No ring tone, it was always on vibrate. I hated ring tones.

I fumbled around aimlessly until I finally managed to retrieve it.

"Speak of the devil..." I muttered to myself, flipping it open. "Hello?"

"Hey Frankie," she greeted me. I could practically hear the smirk in her voice.

"Angelica."

"What, no good morning?" She said, giggling. I hated when she giggled like that.

"Good morning," I replied, rolling my eyes as I did so. "What do you want?"

"Well, I was just calling to remind you to make sure to pick up Sophia from school today. Bert is coming by and taking me to look for a job today. I don't know when I'll be home," she said, and I couldn't help but smile.

"Wait, you? You're getting a job? Wow..." I had to bite my lip to hold back my laughter.

"Shut up, Frank. Just pick her up, okay?"

And with that, the line went dead. I couldn't hold back my laughter anymore, and finally let it all out. That conversation pretty much set the tone for rest of the day, brightening it up just a tad as I continued my way to UPS - with an amused look on my face, of course.

---

Now, normally I hate my job, but I have to admit that I really like delivering packages to places of business rather than delivering to bitchy housewives and grumpy old men. I got a hello and a good morning from just about everyone I delivered to, and had a nice conversation about the weather with the old man that ran the dry cleaners. I even got hit on by the ladies at the hair salon. I have to admit, today was absolutely fantastic so far.

I hopped back on to my truck up and saw that I'd finally gotten rid of all but two packages that remained. They were going to... The Dungeon. What the hell kind of place was that?

I shrugged and picked up the two rather large, rather heavy boxes so I could carry them to this alleged "Dungeon". Problem was, I couldn't find it. I walked all up and down the strip mall, trying desperately to find this stupid place.

My eyes met with a sign that read "The Dungeon" with a sign pointing down. Down...?
I followed the sign and discovered a set of stairs that lead down towards another area. They had red Christmas lights wrapped around them and I'm guessing this was the entrance to The Dungeon... I have to admit I was pretty blown away by this crazy set-up this place had going on. I was intrigued to see what kind of place it actually was.

"Wow..." I breathed out when I took a step in and looked around. This place was amazing! Comic books, music, and DVD's... complete with lots of awesome memorabilia that hung on the walls to accompany each form of medium. This place was simply amazing.

"Those are some big packages you have there!"

His voice broke the trance the store had on me and my eyes met with the man that stood behind the counter, who I'd failed to see before. I couldn't help but blush.

"Do you need help with that?"

He had a pen tucked behind his ear and he was fumbling around with a bunch of different papers. He stacked them up neatly and set them down on the counter in front of him, and simply smiled at me.

"No! Um... sorry about that," I said, feeling the weight of the boxes that I was holding finally get the better of me. I brought the boxes over to him and set them on the counter for him.

"This place is really amazing, I can't believe I haven't been here before..."

I took another good look around at all the perfectly themed areas of the store. The comic book section had life-sized figurines of various X-Men, Spiderman and Batman characters.

In the music section, band posters were plastered everywhere. I particularly liked the Misfits and KISS stuff that was hanging all around. The life-sized Gene Simmons was pretty much the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

And from what I can tell there was also these big movie theater sized posters from some of my favorite movies, like The Nightmare Before Christmas. He even had some life-sized figurines of Jack Skellington and smaller figurines of Lock, Shock, and Barrel. I was completely blown away by how impressive this place was. It was like a museum full of all of my favorite things!

"Well, I'm glad you like it! I'm really proud of it," he said, smiling brightly.

"Wow, this is your place?" I asked, whipping my head around so I could have a proper conversation with him.

"All mine," he replied proudly, clasping his hands in front of him.

His eyes then wandered to a picture he had placed on the side of his desk, of him holding a little boy that had a striking resemblance to him, and a little girl that looked to be about Sophia's age.

"Do you need me to sign something?"

"Oh! Right, I'm so sorry," I said, shaking my head at how unprofessional I was being. I hope he didn't have anything bad to say to my supervisor or anything. That's the last thing I needed at the moment...

I handed the signature pad to him so he could sign for his packages, and he took it with a warm smile and signed it for me. He handed the signature pad back to me, but to my surprise, he didn't let it go. Instead, he kept holding on to it as if he was holding it hostage as he eyed me intently.

"I haven't seen you around before... are you new or something?" he asked, still holding on to my signature pad. I couldn't help but blush.

"Yeah, I'm filling in for Chad today. He's out sick, and I'll be covering his route for him until he comes back," I replied, not entirely sure why I was telling him personal things. Something about him made me like him though. He seemed like a cool guy. Besides, it wasn't everyday I actually enjoyed my job, or even had a conversation with anyone that I delivered a package to. So carrying on this conversation with the proprietor of this fine establishment was quite a treat...

"Ah," he said, finally letting go of my signature pad.

"Thanks," I replied, pressing a few random buttons to show the packages had been delivered. I couldn't help but notice how big and messy his handwriting was. I couldn't even make out what his name was his signature was so messy.

"Well, since you're going to be around for awhile, I might as well introduce myself," he said, catching my attention. "I'm Gerard."

He extended his hand out for me to shake it, so I did.

"Well hi Gerard, I'm Frank."

"Nice to meet you, Frank," he said with a smile, shaking my hand once more before letting me go. He patted his pockets, and looked around as if he was confused about something. "Where the hell did I...?"

Then he stopped and looked at me. "Do you have a knife or some box cutters that I could borrow?"

I dug in to my pocket and fished out the box cutters that we UPS men always carried and handed them to him. "Here you go."

"Thanks," he said, his eyes lighting up as he took them from me. "Now let's see what we have here..."

My eyes began to wander around the store again. I figured it was impolite to stare at someone when they were opening one of their packages.

"Can it be... can it be... YES IT'S FINALLY HERE!" Gerard screamed, throwing his fist in the air. He took a DVD out of the box and hugged it tightly to his chest and sighed contentedly. "THE NEW IRON MAIDEN DVD IS HERE!"

Now he had my attention. "What... oh my God, Iron Maiden!"

I quickly tried to control my excitement, but I simply couldn't. I pretty much forgot that I was the delivery man and became a customer in the span of two seconds.

"You a big Maiden fan?" he asked, noticing how my eyeballs were practically jumping out of their sockets. "Here, take a look."

"HELL YEAH, I AM!" I exclaimed as he handed the DVD to me. I accepted it graciously, eyeing it up and down. I could literally feel my eyes glittering with excitement as I read over the summary on the back of the DVD. "I mean, yeah I'm a Maiden fan, aren't you?"

"AM I?!" He threw his head back dramatically and held another copy of the DVD close to his chest again and hugged it. "I've been waiting for this to come in for weeks. Months, even."

My eyes scanned over the DVD that I clutched tightly in my hands. I was seriously contemplating buying it right here and now. "How much is this gonna be, Gerard?"

It felt weird addressing him by his first name, and I instantly regretted it. But the warm smile he gave me made it all go away, and filled me with this weird sort of happiness.

Had I actually found a friend in this random person that I just met?

"Oh... I'm actually not quite sure yet, I'll have to check and see. To be honest, I actually can't sell this until tomorrow, since it isn't supposed to be releaseduntil tomorrow..."

I literally felt my face fall. But this was for the best anyway, I didn't really have that much money to spare for extra things, such as anything for myself...

Maybe it was a good idea that Angelica was looking for a job of her own now, too. Maybe with this new job, she can quit bringing her drugged up friends over to my house and partying every fucking night in my living room...

"...Or maybe, if you have time, I can pop this baby in and we can watch it right now! Um... Frank?"

I dropped the DVD that I was currently holding. It landed on the counter with this unrealistically loud thud, and I immediately snapped out of the little daze that I'd been trapped in. I felt my cheeks flush, mainly because I was embarrassed about spacing out during a conversation I was having with what seemed like my first friend in a long time, but also because I was so angry at Angelica for becoming such a huge fucking bitch.

I truly hated her, and wished to God that sometimes she would just pack up her shit and leave me and Sophia all alone. I couldn't kick her out, it wasn't that simple. If I did, I wouldn't get to see Sophia every day... just the mere thought of it made me endure every ounce of abuse she sends our way every single day. If my angel was taken away from me, I don't know what I would do...

"Are you okay, Frank?" Gerard asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Of course, I'm fine," I replied quickly, blinking back the tears I knew were inevitable, and put on a smile. Sometimes it seems like that's what I did best.

"I just... have a lot on my mind. It's been one of those days, you know?"

I picked up the DVD from where it had dropped, and handed it to him.

"I'd love to stay and watch that DVD with you, but unfortunately I have a few more deliveries to make right now. But I'll be back for this first thing tomorrow morning so I can buy it! Here you go."

Gerard looked down at the DVD then back at me, and pushed it right back in my hands. I looked at him confused, and he just simply smiled.

"Well, I took a quick count to make sure they sent me exactly what I'd ordered, and it turns out they sent me an extra copy. So here," he said, once again placing the DVD back in my hands. "Take this, enjoy it. Let me know how awesome it is when you come back tomorrow."

I looked down at the DVD in awe, then back at him. This was too much!

"No, I can't just take this, Gerard," I pleaded, once again trying my hardest to give the DVD back to him, but he absolutely refused to accept it. "Well, at least let me pay for it!"

He took the DVD from me this time, with an even bigger smile on his face this time. He placed it in a bag and thrust it back at me.

"I told you, I can't sell it to you until tomorrow. But I can give it to you, as long as you keep this our little secret," Gerard said with a smile. "Let's just say this is for... research. I need you to watch this so I can get an unbiased opinion, because I can automatically say that it's absolutely amazing and I haven't even watched it yet. So really, you're doing me a favor. Take it."

"This is really awesome of you. Thank you so much, really... this is amazing," I continued to thank him, in complete disbelief how awesome this simple gesture made me feel.

"It's nothing, really," he replied smoothly, picking up the discarded papers he was going over from before and retrieved the pencil he had behind his ear. "Just remember to come back and visit me tomorrow and let me know all about it, okay?"

"You got it. Have a great day, Gerard. It was really nice meeting you, and thanks again," I said, grabbing the signature pad and my new gift as I headed towards the door.

"You too, Frank!" he called out to me, waving as I made my way out the door and back to my truck.

I couldn't stop smiling. It really meant a lot to have someone that I could consider a friend, even though this 'friend' was a complete stranger just a mere half hour ago.

I started up the truck, and drove off with a smile on my face.