Chapter Three: Senseless Acts
The guy whom Zeke stepped his foot on and caused to fall was not just some random “jock faggot.” His name is Frankie Severino. A tense high school history exists between the two.
Frankie, even back then, was into causing trouble, lifting weights, and a regular abuser of controlled substances. Problems developed during their sophomore year. Zeke knows all too well about Brandon’s unspoken topic, the one involving a person’s personal perspective on life, how experiences and relationships affect an individual’s perceptions of this world.
Zeke and Frankie attended two of the same classes: weight training and drafting. They also maintained interests in the same girl, Miranda, who goes to a different high school.
It’s the one that Frankie used to attend.
Zeke forms a liking for Miranda, having met when each of them were causally strolling by themselves in a neighborhood park after school one day.
They exchange numbers. Eventually he goes to hang out over at her house.
There, the environment is busy and overwhelming for Zeke. Miranda’s attention is so devoutly focused on him the entire time, as they’re in her brother’s bedroom, with a couch there for them to sit on. It’s a strange setting for Zeke, their houseguest, to get a grasp on.
Miranda’s brother is preoccupied the entire time, constantly taking phone calls held with short conversations. His friends randomly stick their heads in, most times waiting outside the bedroom door to purchase and barter for pot. It’s evident that these high school guys, dropping in for drugs, are secret admirers of Miranda. She seems so willing to give in to Zeke, patiently well behaved, wanting to accept the hope of finding a mutual connection, displacing personal grievances experienced in the past by being toyed with juvenile, misguided, self-centered boys.
But the situation is increasingly awkward. The things Zeke wants to talk about with Miranda seem like foolish words to be spoken in front of these imposing chaperones. Looking at his watch he sees it’s getting late. It’s incomprehensible, why Miranda has maintained such sincere focus. Maybe she has an innate ability to discern potential, valuing the differences Zeke exhibits, in comparison to the losers her brother has warned her not to get involved with. One lowlife in particular that shows up at the house, as Zeke is getting ready to leave, is Frankie.
Zeke senses a different type of fascination Frankie holds toward Miranda. He doesn’t respond with the same mannerisms the others use. Under close observation, Frankie behaves differently, in comparison to when he’s in class or walking the school campus. It’s as though he views her as an interesting specimen. One he’s familiar with, and watches out of curiosity.
The disadvantage is troubling, that Frankie can stay longer with Miranda. Zeke wages against personal conflict, fighting with the pressure to get home. It’s dark out and he needs to get back on this school night. Sadly he breaks the news that he should leave. What’s strange is after Miranda walks past, to see Zeke out, Frankie encourages Zeke to give her a kiss goodbye.
“What kind of undermining game was this?” Zeke silently questions.
“You want to…don’t you?” Frankie instigates further.
Of course he wants to, but a sickening feeling in Zeke’s stomach forces him to shy away from this notion. It had to be a slime ball trap. Why else would Frankie, this dirt bag that’s probably been warned to keep away from Miranda, push for this?
What Zeke doesn’t determine until years later, is that Frankie has his eyes on Zeke. Frankie monitors what goes on at night, there at Miranda’s, prowling for young new prospects, in search of other teenage boys seeking male companionship, just as he does.
Zeke and Miranda talk one other time over the phone (regularly interrupted by calls coming in for Miranda’s brother). But the situation is far too complicated, in an already complicated time in Zeke’s life. He’s been struggling with the adjustment of high school and declining grades. Ultimately Zeke resolves that the home environment his supposed girlfriend would be drawn back into seems likely to stunt positive growth in their relationship.
Zeke abandons hope in the possibility of that love, finding substitute comfort when an unexpected friendship forms with a classmate in his tenth grade English class. Buddy is going through an awkward time of adjustment also, having arrived halfway through the semester, moving from a neighboring city with his mom, younger stepsister, and recent stepdad.
The Bowen family happens to live right up the street from Zeke’s house. The two boys form a bond two weeks after Buddy joins the class, when they are partnered up for an English assignment. It begins by walking to and from school together, then hanging out after class at Buddy’s house. They remain the best of friends for three years, until they both start dating this pair of girls, the McCarthy sisters.
The sisters don’t get along together, wedging a separation between the two guys.
Three months after Miranda and Zeke stop talking Frankie gets a small pickup truck, and stops by to see if Miranda would like to go for a ride. Frankie hasn’t given up on his interests with Zeke. He’s come to the twisted conclusion that if Zeke sees him and Miranda together, as a couple, that Zeke will become extremely jealous. Then that passion will develop into him (Frankie) and Zeke either coming to blows, exchanging passionate punches at one another, or that through this extreme tension they would intimately draw closer.
While Miranda and he are out, Frankie tests the situation, revisiting the notion to see if Miranda’s possibly interested. She makes it abundantly clear that she’s not, not because her brother has warned her about him, but because she’s been around enough junkies and bisexual creeps to know that Frankie is a loser and would be a detriment to her life. She agreed to go for a ride, wanting to get out of the house, hoping that maybe she’d meet someone new while out.
In the back of Frankie’s mind he questions whether Miranda is only interested in girls. He continues to press the issue, increasing the speed of the small pickup truck, his control of sensibility sliding, determined that if he presses the matter this obstacle will relent, accept him, and be there as the missing piece to his perverse ruse.
Having grown up around boys, Miranda is tough, and knows not to put up with harassment; balling her fist she punches Frankie square in the temple. Unfortunately her mom never pressed the importance to always buckle up. The strike momentarily knocks Frankie out. Miranda fights to regain control over the pickup, but without access to the foot or emergency brake she’s unable to slow the vehicle down. The truck t-bones another car pulling out into the four-way intersection the two speedily enter. Miranda flies through the front windshield and strikes a tree in the center island of the road. She is pronounced dead on the scene.
News of the tragedy reaches Zeke. The reality of the situation is devastating. Guilt infects his mind. He should have been there for Miranda, convinced it was his responsibility in life to look after her. Then she would have never stepped foot in Frankie’s small pickup truck. He failed her through abandonment. Worse, Frankie had taken advantage of her at a susceptible moment, and was the cause of her death. The guilt manifests itself into reoccurring nightmares. In those moments Zeke finds himself going to visit Miranda at her place of afterlife.
Frankie avoids court-ordered penalties for Miranda’s death. He’s hospitalized with a broken jaw and neck injuries from his face slamming against the truck’s steering wheel. A toxicology report states that no drugs were present in Frankie’s system at the time of the accident.
One burning question that repeats in Zeke’s thoughts, manifesting in his nightmares is: when does verbal harassment elevate into physical assault?
“Frankie should have faced punishment for what he caused; to serve some hard time in the pen,” Zeke bitterly determines. “There he’d be some big black dude’s cell partner, routinely taking hard poundings, perhaps by multiple partners. It’s a sizable start to the emotional and physical distress h
e has coming to him.”
Zeke vows to make Frankie pay for what he did. That Frankie’s punishment will be the most powerful reconstruction of hell on earth. To do this, Zeke resolves to figure out a way to put Frankie there, by framing Frankie with murder.
Having drifted apart from Buddy, and long since separated from the McCarthy sister, Zeke still suffers from the dreams, going to visit Miranda in her place of waiting. Four years have passed. He’s in his second year of college, his focus to cause Frankie trouble placed on temporary hold, working the drive thru at Fish & Chips, close to receiving a managerial promotion…when Frankie makes a surprise appearance.
Restaurant protocol requires the drive thru attendant address the customer at the time the order is placed. “The name’s Frankie,” Zeke hears.
Forcing a smile he ignores tense anxieties, in case it is who he thinks it is (before the driver pulls up). “It is him!” his mind screams. He’s driving a red, early model pickup truck.
Zeke scans Frankie’s eyes for familiarity, but Frankie’s unfocused by his male passenger.
Oh how Zeke would love to whip together some Ajax in with Frankie’s tartar sauce, and then slather the concoction on the inside of the sandwich he’s ordered. But this can’t come back to the restaurant. Not yet it can’t. And suppose his bro-mantic friend got sick instead?
From then on Zeke maintains close tabs on Frankie’s routine, monitoring and intricately investigating Frankie’s acquaintances, and the places he regularly frequents.