Beth

Adrian was waiting for his big break. He felt he was finally going to hit it big. On one screen, he was entering the latest Vocal challenge. On the other, the in-box of his most used e-mail address. The HEB Zero Original Cola can sat just to the left of his keyboard, the microphone to be used tonight during ESO's war night sat off to the right.

Tomorrow, his wife was putting on a garage sale. He'd already posted about it on a local Facebook group. He knew he'd have to be up early to put up the garage sale signs guiding traffic to his house. He'd also have to be there until enough of his wife's trusted friends could show up to lend a helping hand with the thieves that would inevitably arrive.

Hate was no longer in his heart. It had been most recently lit by Donald Trump. As soon as he had announced his intentions to run for president and had railed against Mexico, Adrian hated all things Trump. He had smelled Hitler a mile away.

Then, at a local call center, a new project manager was appointed. Everything seems to indicate that the client had wanted Adrian for the job, but he had seen the pressure the client had put on the previous project manager and wanted no part of it. As soon as an opportunity presented itself, Adrian was shown the door.

Then the pandemic hit. Adrian had delivered for Uber Eats immediately, went through training at another nearby call center, was on the phones with Memorial Day weekend coming up. Young folks at call centers so close to South Padre Island had Adrian working from his house for the second time. He knew he didn't like it, but felt powerless.

Then he took the call that broke the camel's back. A young lady gave Adrian the once over, she had time to kill. Adrian had a response for every protest she threw at him. At the end, she laughed and said, "Ok.... heh... you win."

She rattled his cage unmercifully, throwing his average handle time stats out the window. His calls would certainly be monitored and he'd get fired AGAIN sooner or later. He gave notice, and was marked as 're-hirable.'

Adrian was still living in south Texas. Where young, bi-lingual folks are a dime a dozen and the pay isn't much better. Folks with Hispanic last names who complain about the high percentage of license plates at the mall being from Mexican states. Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. His parents and grandparents were all born in Tamaulipas.

Morons these local young folk are. No other word came to mind. Who else would be scared to go into Mexico? Pochos is what they'd be called. It's hard to explain the word 'pocho.' Think of a coconut. Brown on the outside but white on the inside. Adrian was typing in English, but he was brown to the bone.

Then he got a message on Facebook from an old flame. And old flame that he'd never forgotten. Beth. Adrian was on top of the world the day he had first seen her. She was simply stunning. Stunning in every sense of the word. Completely unforgettable.

He remembered a lot of the reasons Beth had given for not leaving her current husband for him. Beth would be unable to father any of Adrian's children. Life after Beth threw Adrian a nasty curveball. Adrian, after he had married, discovered that he'd always had a zero sperm count. He was never going to father anyone.

Stone Temple Pilots. Plush. And I feel, and I feel when the dogs begin to smell her. Will she smell alone?

They'd talked about that song and those lyrics. Beth had brought up the song about loving the one your with.

Lord knows there's not time enough in the world to explain everything to everybody. Everyone has skeletons. And everyone hides there skeletons inside closets as best they can.

But if Adrian could only hear Beth's voice one more time. He take a deep breath and face whatever future nasty curveballs would be thrown his way. Any weapon formed against him wouldn't prosper. And he'd never lose faith in the words of his Lord Jesus Christ.