Clark Bent eventually filed for divorce from his wife and moved in with Joey Defalco. He refused to go to work because he wanted to spend all his time with Joey Defalco. He would follow him around everywhere. When Joey Defalco had to go to work, Clark Bent would go into a fit and began crying and Joey Defalco would always end up being late becuase he had to console him. Then he started to follow Joey Defalco to the department store where he worked as a sales associate. He would hang around all day feigning and browsing as if he was a customer until it was time to take Joey Defalco home.
Clark Bent ended up proposing to Joey Defalco and eventually married him in a formal commitment ceremony in front of their friends and family. Clark Bent completely stopped working in a desperate effort to totally devote himself to Joey Defalco. He became quite literally a “Desperate House wife”, cooking, cleaning and waiting on Joey Defalco like a fawning puppy who was eager to please. At first, Joey Defalco thought “Great. The potion is working.” But the more submissive Clark Bent was, the more infuriated and disenchanted Joey Defalco became. It was as if Clark Bent’s personality and sense
of identify had been completely purged by the potion. Clark Bent agreed with everything Joey Defalco said, like a five year old frantically trying to please his father. Clark Bent’s obsession even kept him from being with his friends and family.
Now feeling completely isolated and with his back against the wall, Joey Defalco had had enough. So he went back to his Houngan dad to request another potion to reverse that dreadful spell on Clark Bent. To his dismay, his father told him that the spell could not be undone and that he was condemned to be with Clark Bent until one of them died. And so that was when Joey Defalco made up his time to do the unthinkable: he resolved to kill Clark Bent.
It was a day like any other. Clark Bent was following Joey Defalco around the house as he was getting ready to go to work. Joey Defalco went about his business as if Clark Bent wasn’t there at all. Just when he was ready to leave, Clark Bent commenced crying as usual and he hugged and consoled him, patting his back and saying, “There, there. I’ll be home soon enough.” After Joey Defalco left, Clark Bent decided to go to the living room, sat in front of an 8×11 photograph of Joey Defalco, scrutinizing it as if he was hypnotized by it. At times, he felt that the picture was scowling at him with furrowed eyebrows and squinty eyes. He remained there all day long, only leaving occasionally to go to the bathroom.
When Joey Defalco left work, he stopped by the hardware store to purchase some arsenic—which is a form of rat poison—to prepare Clark Bent’s dinner. At the store, Joe the store owner smiled and asked him, “Hey Joey, I see you’re having pest problems, eh?” Joey Defalco avoided looking at Joe then immediately left the store to avoid any more probing questions. When you frequent mom and pop establishments like Joe’s Hardware, the proprietor is so used to seeing you; he tends to importune into your personal life. Before you know it, gossip is not too far behind and he didn’t want to raise any suspicion about his murderous intentions.
He put Clark Bent’s arsenic laced clam chowder in a red bowl and his in a blue bowl so that he wouldn’t eat from the wrong one by mistake. He had to be very stealthy since Clark Bent sat in the kitchen the whole time watching him cook, his eyes following Joey Defalco around like the eyes in a picture.
However, for some reason Clark Bent’s arsenic laced clam chowder didn’t do the trick. Days turned into months and Clark Bent refused to die. So Joey Defalco resolved to take a more drastic measure. It was a Sunday evening; he waited for Clark Bent to fall asleep. He then went into the kitchen, retrieved a knife big enough to slaughter a cow and proceeded to go into the bedroom. He skulked towards the bed and abruptly stopped when the floor board squeaked. Clark Bent turned to lie on his back. At the bedside, he hovered over Clark Bent raising the giant knife as high as he could, in the opposite wall; his oversized shadow was elongated so that the knife looked like it came from the ceiling. Just as he was bringing the knife down, Clark Bent suddenly opened his eyes, saw the knife and for a short time bellowed out continuous loud screeches until suddenly Clark Bent was forever silenced. Joey Delfalco quickly grabbed a heavy blanket and threw it over Clark Bent.
He then dragged Clark Bent’s body off the bed, making a loud thud as it hit the floor. He then proceeded to hold his hands up to the ceiling and yell, “Houngan, your curse has driven me to this, that I should take the life of the man I love. But I know God will forgive me and curse you to hell!” He then went into the bedroom, wrapped Clark Bent’s body in multiple layers of sheets and dragged him to the back yard. He dug up a hole and dumped the body by rolling it away from himself.
When he got back to the house and as he was changing his bloody clothes, he heard some loud urgent pounding at the door. He peered into the peep hole.
“It’s the police! Open up!” The voice sounded threatening and commanding. With trembling hands, and the beginning of beads of sweat streaking down on either side of his forehead, he reluctantly opened the door.
“Good evening, Sir. There has been a complaint from your neighbor about loud noises, possible screams coming from this apartment.”
“Whatever do you mean, officer?” He tried to look nonplused and completely free from culpability.
“Some high pitched screams were heard and then you were seen dragging something long wrapped up in sheets out to the back yard.” The officer said as he tried to look around and over Joey Defalco’s shoulders. “Do you mind if I take a look around?” Joey Defalco felt a surge of panic creeping up his throat like undigested food. He had to think of something quick, since the entire bedroom was still covered with blood stains everywhere. And will all the nonchalance he could muster, he said, “Well officer, I was just preparing dinner. It’s been a long day and so I’m famished. Hey, I know this is unusual, but would you care to join me?” The officer looked at him with bewilderment in his eyes. Then he smiled and said, “Sure, why not. I skipped lunch today since we’ve been so busy. There‘s been a lot of homicides in the city lately. What’s this world coming to?” He then stepped inside with his hands hanging over his gun belt.
Joey Defalco served him a salad as they sat down to dinner together. “This is the best salad I’ve ever tasted! I’d love to have the recipe to give to my wife.” Joey Defalco snickered while looking at him and said, “Do you really?” Then he said to himself, “What a good looking guy. Surely the most handsome cop I’ve ever seen. I wonder if he likes to play basketball.”
***
As Victor De Marco got up to leave, I swiftly placed my hands over his and asked, “Whatever happened to Joey Defalco?” He gave me a knowing look, smiled and just walked away. And to myself I thought, “Oh well, just another day at the 1369 Café.”
***
Jacques Fleury is a Poet, Author and Columnist; his book “Sparks in the Dark: A Lighter Shade of Blue, A Poetic Memoir” about life in Haiti & America was featured in the Boston Globe. Sample or buy the book at: www.lulu.com. 20% of proceeds will go to Haiti charity Partners in Health. For personal appearances or comments contact Jacques at: haitianfirefly@gmail.com.
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