Side Story 3 - The Obscurity Christmas Special
On a chill evening in early December, Daniel Leonardo stepped into his empty home to the dim light from outside. He sat his coat on a rack inside the wooden door in the opening hallway, shivering a little as he stripped it off of his torso. Walking closer to the thermostat, he tapped the white buttons on the greenly-glowing console to bring the temperature up to a nice 70 degrees. The old man rubbed his face with his rough hands before walking into the kitchen and turning on the light above the stove. He looked around the lonely house somewhat disgruntled, unsure of what to do.
Stepping into the nearby living room, Dan looked down at the busy kitchen table. Out of his large back pocket, he took out a wad of envelopes and advertisements he had gotten from his mailbox not too long ago. Setting them on the rest of the massive stack, he squeakily sat down in a wooden chair that overlooked the round table. He picked up a stack of the envelopes and sifted through them, making smaller piles based on the date and the contents of the papers. In the end, he had a few nice stacks of bills, family letters, and magazines. Dan picked up the top letter in the bills pile, putting on his reading glasses to see what it had to say.
"$200 dollars for a month I wasn't even here..." Dan sighed and put it in a new stack next to the others. He went through them one by one until he caught something. "'The cafe you once owned has been bought out by a previous buyer interested in the property. Although any and all damages were paid for by the landlord's insurance, the building you once owned has been re-constructed into a...' A nick-nack shop?!" He flipped the card over to see a number on the back, grabbing phone soon after.
"Hello, is this the owner of the building o-"
"Oh, you must be Dan," a young woman said from the phone. "I'm actually so glad you called, I've been trying to get in contact with you to see if we could clear some things up with the insurance and integrity of the place."
"Are you the young lady that stole my store," Dan bitterly asked with gritted teeth. The only response he got was a muffled little chuckle that rang through his ear. "Damn kids... How'd you even pay for the place anyway? It should still be under contract with me!"
"Oh yeah, sorry about that." The woman settled her breathing slightly. "You see, I actually managed to negotiate with your landlord and score a sweet deal on this property. I mean, right at a major intersection with a pizza parlor and a bar? Not to mention, it can be accessed from inside and outside of the major downtown area."
Dan grimaced at his phone. "I know the damn building, lady, but that doesn't answer my question! How the hell did you manage to get that building in the first place?"
"Tell ya what, Dan," the woman said sweetly, "How about you come on down and we'll settle the details soon. Say... Friday?"
As Dan stuttered and struggled to respond, the phone hung up and went silent. The old man looked around his empty living room, scowling down at his phone before throwing it onto his long, olive couch. With a slight whimper, he wiped his hand over his mouth and looked longingly over to his bedroom on the other side of the kitchen. He walked in, heading for the small bathroom that sat in the corner of his room. He took one of the many orange pill bottles and choked down a few pellets before calming down.
Taking a deep breath, Dan looked in the mirror hanging over his sink. He brushed his teeth quickly before crawling into bed and pulling the covers over his body. After a few more deep breaths, he quietly fell asleep in his black room with only the flashing of his clock past the foot of his bed.
When the time came to confront his problems, Dan woke up early. He thoroughly shaved his face for the first time in what felt like months, taking the blade slow across his chiseled chin. He gathered the clothes he would wear, putting on a light blue button up shirt and plain khaki pants that he attached with a leather belt. Walking out the door, he adjusted his silver hair with a comb to make it look neater.
The old man drove downtown, parking behind the front of what was once his cafe. He walked under the iron pavilion to the little entrance at the back of the building. Opening the door, he saw nothing that looked like his cafe. The tables were gone, the chairs by the counter stripped. His confused astonishment turned even more grim from looking at the shelves around the interior, the pastey white walls, the blaring lights overhead. Nothing was kept the same as it once was.
"Oh Dan, you made it," the woman from the phone said as she gestured her hands around the place. She seemed to be in her mid-to-late thirties with glasses on a little chain around her neck. Her blonde hair almost twinkled in the lights as she walked closer to Dan. "Welcome to my shop. My name's Sabrina-"
"What the hell'd you do to my cafe?" Dan pointed up at the ceiling lights. "This color, this shabbiness... Why'd you do it? And how?"
"Now now," Sabrina said as she held onto Dan's frigid hands. "We'll go discuss those terms now if it'll put your mind at ease. Just follow me." The two walked up to the second floor of the building, which opened into an office space with the same drab colors as the store below. The woman walked to her desk and sat in the swivel chair. Crossing her legs, she motioned Dan to sit across from her. "Okay, so I bet you're wondering how I bought this little guy at the edge of a major part of downtown..."
"You're a prophet," Dan sighed. He put his elbows on the wooden desk, scooching his chair closer as well. "Yes, I do want to know how you bought this building without my knowledge."
"Well, Mr. Leonardo," Sabrina clasped her hands and put them under her face as her elbows also landed on her desk, "it's pretty simple. If you somehow didn't know, you've only been renting the floor below." She pulled a piece of paper with a stamped "vetoed" over it. "This is the contract that you placed with the original owners of the building, your landlord, and the city itself. This whole folder, actually..."
She pulled out a thick beige journal that housed dozens of papers in it. "This folder right here is the letters we've found over the past two years, including your original bank statement in 2019, that tell how much you could make for that moment. This document made it to where you wouldn't have to pay the rent as long as the bank supported it. However, there is a notable dent, that being the insurance not being able to cover the expenses of the explosion on March 31st of this year and the hospital bills that covered those costs. Since your care only allows for one of these at a time, the money being paid rent for the cafe went into your hospital bills, allowing you to recover. Also, since I've been looking into this property for a bit myself, I requested a meeting with the landlord and sorted everything out. Any questions?"
Dan sat across from Sabrina dumbfounded, his gaping mouth showing his pure confusion on what he heard. He put his hands to his face before holding them out at her. "Yes, what was all of what you just said? But ten times slower. My ears are still ringing from when this place BLEW TO THE SKY."
"Okay, basically, I bought you out with this-" Sabrina held up a paper. "With this-" Then another. "And then with this-" Another with a big, red X on it. "Then finally this-" She held up the deed to the building before quickly pulling them away like the rest of the papers. "Now, I'm sorry I have to cut this chat short, but I have a business to run." Sabrina slightly shoved a stuttering Dan out of the office door. "If you have any other questions, let me know and I'll happily bring a representative to help you out. Bye now."
The door slammed behind Dan, who stammered a bit before walking down the stairs and back to his car. He scrunched his tired eyes and weakly pinched them as he turned the key. Exiting the parking lot, he decided to drive a bit through downtown, looking at the various businesses dotting the streets. Turning one last time, he saw what was once his cafe leave his line of sight. Turning back to the road, he just shook his head.
"What a load of bullshit."
"Daimain, where'd you put the candy canes?"
"I don't know, I thought you gave 'em to Mom."
"HEY MOM, YOU GOT THE CANDY CANES?!"
"Yeah, Alex, just a second," Faith said from Dan's kitchen, cooking a salty stirfry. She grabbed a small box of candy canes on the edge of the counter and walked into the living room, where she saw her children putting up their Christmas tree. "Ready?" Faith threw the box up at Alex, who barely caught it with both of her hands wrapped around it.
"Thanks, Mom." Alex opened the box and put a few candy canes around the tree. "Dame, put these on the backside of the tree," she said, looking down from the chair she was standing on. She tossed the box to her brother, who was standing a few feet away from the tree at the windows facing the back porch, and hit him on the shoulder.
"Ach, bitch..." Daimian said as he picked the box off of the carpeted floor. Alex rolled her eyes and finished placing the remaining canes she had left in her hand. The two put the candy canes all around the plastic tree until the box was completely empty.
Dan came out of his room to the bright lights in his living room flashing a brilliant glow. "Wow, you guys put that up fast, huh," he said, slightly shielding his eyes from his forehead. The siblings nodded and continued setting up the tree with a massive box of ornaments. Dan turned to Faith, who was still working on the stir-fry. "How's the food coming along," he said as he pecked her head.
"It's going alright. I got this going and some tea on the kettle that should be boiling-" Faith waited a moment before the kettle started to squeal, "-now."
"Not bad, young lady. And I guess the table's all set?"
"That was their job, actually," Faith said as she pointed in the living room.
Dan peered in to see the coffee table still stuffed with his bills and various papers. "Oh, yeah. I see." Picking up the bills, he sighed and looked back in the kitchen. "I think I'll actually clean the table for tonight." After he finished, he saw Faith's hand gave a thumbs up from the door frame. The old man gathered the stacks of paper and put them on an end table in the corner of the room. Motioning to the siblings, he brought chairs from the other room for everyone to sit at the round table.
"Dinner's ready," Faith called out as she brought the steaming pot from the kitchen. The others brought plates from the cabinet above the sink and gathered around the table, each of them seated around each other. The family sat together in a fine circle, taking servings of the rice and chicken with a large spoon and shoving it on their plates. The four of them chatted and laughed about the spirits of the holidays and the plans that they were going to make.
"Oh, we should probably call Dad in a bit, shouldn't we," Daimian asked the crowd. "Or should we do that on one of the actual Christmas days?"
"I don't know, it would be sweet to call him on the actual holiday. Have everyone there for it and make it more of a surprise," Faith said as she pointed her fork at her son.
"Yeah, might as well wait a week to build the suspense," Alex said as she poked at her plate.
"As for the day itself," Dan shifted the topic, "what if all of us got together to see the trees in the park. Have you guys seen them yet? I hear they're gorgeous." The rest of the family nodded as he smiled at them. "It's a date, then. Now, how about we get some rest tonight? If ya'll want to stay here tonight, we got plenty of space."
"Thanks Dan, but I think we had plans tonight," Faith shamefully shook her head. "I was going to hang out with some of my other friends tonight and I think Alex has some work too."
"And Daimian?"
"Sorry, Dan," Daimian shrugged. "I still gotta do some Christmas shopping before everything gets taken off the shelves."
"Oh, alright," Dan said, slumping in his seat a bit. With that, they finished dinner and got ready to leave.
As he was putting his plate away, Daimian noticed the stack of bills on the end table and read the top one disclosing the ownership of the cafe. In a slight panic, he read further, scowling as he did. He put it down and continued getting ready with everyone else. The four of them got to the door and hugged Dan goodbye. "It's always great to see you, Dan," Alex said into the man's shoulder.
"Of course, dear," Dan said as the young woman let him go. "And thanks for all of your help with the tree. Saves me the hassle of trying to get it up myself."
"No problem, Dan," Daimian said with a thumbs-up. The three waved Dan goodbye as they left the door in a line, making their way to each other's cars. Dan watched from the front door as they pulled out of the driveway, the bitter cold of the night biting his face.
Later that night, Daimian sat on his bed, thinking about the bills on Dan's table. Quickly, he took out his suit and put it on, placing a large jacket over it. As he stepped out the door, he called out to his mother, "GOING TO THE STORE, I LOVE YOU!"
"I LOVE YOU TOO," Faith called from another room. "BE SAFE!"
On the rooftops of downtown, Obscurity watched as the streets below bustled with activity despite the colder weather. He made his way to where Dan's cafe used to be to find the store in it's stead. "Yeesh," he whispered to himself, "I know I've seen what they've done to the place before, but it looks worse after knowing what's up with it."
Crawling back down the alleyway, he swiftly crossed the road to be under the iron pavilion near the old cafe. In the shrinking darkness, Obscurity climbed up another brick alley to get on the iron pavilion, making him level to the second floor of the old cafe. Making his way closer to the end of the street where it was, he heard voices coming from inside. 'Wonder what's going on in there,' he thought to himself. Squatting and holding his ear to the brick wall, he could vaguely make out what some people inside were saying.
"Three hours?" A woman's voice.
"Yes. The truck will be loading everything in from the back, so make sure you have everything." A man's voice.
"Shit," Obscurity whispered to himself. He continued to listen as footsteps walked out of the office and down the stairs to the first floor. Setting his back on the freezing wall, he sighed and looked at the parking lot behind the old cafe. "Three hours she said..." He looked at a clock sitting where a light post would nor- mally be, reading the time as ten at night. "I got time."
At 1:14 in the morning, Obscurity woke up to the backing of a semi-truck and it's trailer opened. He rubbed his eyes and looked down from the iron pavilion to see men with pistols strapped to their waists. Slowly approaching was Sabrina in a long winter coat that covered her down to her boots. 'Oh, that's a very nice coat,' Obscurity thought to himself as she walked closer to the truck.
"Half an hour to pack this shit up, then you're outta here, you copy," Sabrina asked as she tossed a clipboard at one of the men. They quickly signed it and handed it back to her. She nodded her head back to the cafe before walking off into the cold downtown.
Obscurity watched as the men loaded wooden boxes into the trailer, counting four of them in total. He waited for a moment to see if anyone would reveal the contents inside. One of the men peaked into one of the boxes and sniffed into it. He watched as they pulled out a bag and stuffed the white substance in their pockets.
'Something's telling me that isn't snow...' Obscurity thought for a minute as he looked around for anything to use. On a balcony, he saw a flower pot sitting with nothing in it but dirt as well as a rusty pair of hedge trimmers for whatever reason. He inconspicuously grabbed them and huddled close to the pavilion, watching the men closely. Holding the pot from the pavilion, he aimed it so it would drop over one of their heads. After a moment of alignment, he dropped it.
KISH!
The other three looked up as the man dropped to the ground unconscious. They all held their hands on thier pistols, ready to pull it out and fire. Watching closely, they made out the shape of Obscurity's body moving around slightly. He jumped down softly as they started to pull their guns out.
Using the hedge trimmers, he was able to knock one of the men's guns while giving him a slight scratch on his wrist. Putting them down, he sweeped the leg of one of the other men, who tripped and fell flat on his face. The last one tried to fire a bullet, managing to hit the window to one of the nearby stores and setting off an alarm. The man with the cut wrist ran to the front of the truck and rev the engine before the police could show up. Obscurity was able to kick the one who fired to the ground, but the other one was able to close the door as the truck started to drive away.
As the police sirens started to approach, Obscurity tried to pile the remaining men on top of each other and shove them by the remaining box. Dusting his hands, he climbed back up to the pavilion to watch the police take the men in with confused expressions on their faces. He looked back at the scene before running back through the streets of downtown to get home.
"Unfortunately, I can't do anything for you, mister Leonardo," Dan's lawyer said, sliding a folder across his desk. "This Sabrina chick was able to buy out the property for a lot more and had a previous relationship with the building before you showed up." He clasped his hands and sighed. "I'm sorry Dan, but, anyway you put this, she'll come out with the deed."
"Dan, why didn't you tell us this sooner." Faith asked, tugging on Dan's sleeve. Alex and Daimian sat in the door frame of the office, listening in on the conversation. Everyone looked at Dan, who wore a devastated look on his face.
"There's nothing we can do to get it back," Dan asked. His lawyer shook his head, making his head sink again.
"The only thing I can suggest is to find a new piece of property somewhere cheap. Otherwise, you might not own a cafe again," his lawyer said before opening a file cabinet behind him. "If you'd like, I can try to find another building for you to set up at that fits your budget."
Dan shook his head. "No thank you, that's alright." He stood up with Faith and started to walk to the door. "Thanks for everything you've done."
The four of them left the law firm, strolling through downtown in the morning sun. When they passed the old cafe, Dan looked in the large windows. He could see the counter where stools used to be, the sides of the walls where the booths were. Before too long, Sabrina knocked on the glass from the other side and gave a sarcastic grin as she waved. Dan scowled and turned away, catching up with the rest of the group.
"I'm sure you'll find somewhere, Dan. It's just a matter of time," Faith said, patting Dan on the back.
"I don't know, Faith," Dan sighed. "That place had something special about it. Just how accessible it was to everything, having a back and front door... You just can't find a place like that in downtown anymore..."
"Hey Dan," Daimian perked as he tugged on the old man's sleeve. "How about the empty building over there?" He pointed across the street at a large and vacant building sitting next to a Mexican restaurant. The windows had no signs of life other than dust and the area around it was in rough condition.
"You mean the old comic shop," Dan asked. He scratched his head and thought to himself for a moment. Looking back at the crosswalk, he urged the family to follow him. The group crossed the street and made their way to the front of the building. All of them pressed their faces against the glass and peered inside the empty lot. Taking his face away, Dan nodded slightly before looking the others with a smile on his face. "You know what, Dame? I think this could damn well work as a new cafe."