Earl & Fay - story poem

              Earl and Fay

No doubt you’ve heard of Bonnie and Clyde
How they took their final ride
Ended up in a dramatic death scene
A bullet riddled car
   their last breath
   their last scream

Here’s a duo known to me
Knew them both tragically
The cops called them “Pepper and Salt”
A biracial couple, wasn’t a fault
Earl, a black man, handsome and tall
Dressed like a banker, fine suit and all
Drove a Cadillac, they were in style
Lived in a home architecturally wild
In fact, not completely constructed
Earl said they were waiting
   for a permit to be adducted
Fay was a white girl, from out of Ontario
An artist, restorer of statues from Mexico
Or Italy, as the statues of Saints or Faces
That fills up church niches and spaces
Their house was filled with photos and art
You’d take one look not know where to start

I met Fay when I had some puppies to sell
Expensive full blooded pedigreed well
Fay was knowledgeable knew how to fix
Knew all the breeders and ringmaster’s tricks
Showed me pictures of her dogs in the ring
With trophies, ribbons and things
You don’t get champions based just on blood
There’s plenty of skullduggery, must know how to slug
“I’ll make yours a champ, just wait and see”
So I sold her a pup and she took him from me
I was a kid, maybe twelve at the time
Fay was master at stealing you blind
The check that she gave me I passed to my mom
Without telling me it naturally bombed
Fay had some story that she’d construct
My mom felt real sorry for folks out of luck
Fay told everyone she was a survivor
Of intestinal cancer
That she’d put behind her
It was a long time ago
I can’t remember every detail
But I haven’t forgotten that friendships do fail

I guess I fell in love with Fay
She was special in a new way
She treated me as an adult from the start
Wheedled her way right into my heart
We become great friends in a matter of weeks
For the debt my family was too embarrassed to speak
Invited for parties and barbeque
Earl helped us build a tree house too
One day a few months later, Fay’s phone was disconnected
We feared the worse from what we’d expected
Her neighborhood friends had become also ours
We rushed to Fay’s house in all of our cars
A notice of eviction was stuck to the door
No sign of Fay or Earl on the floor
Just a rag tag of cloths, trunks, stuff abandoned
Fay and Earl had left
They were not stranded
There was no sign of that puppy of mine
Not a hair from his head or from his behind
We broke in thru a window on the first floor
We acted as creditors with a bit of rancor
I took a small painting that she had signed
Stuff of no value that they left behind
I scavenged a photo of Fay with her dogs, it had no worth
My mom grabbed a statue, must have been from a church
So big that it hardly fit in our truck
How we got it home required some luck
No notice of Fay and Earl ever came
We realized that they were to blame
If only they’d told us they were in trouble
We’d have run to them on the double
Why they never reached out to friends
Was what caused the friendship’s end
I went to the cops
Swore out a warrant for dog theft
Their score a big eyed puppy that I’d see no more

The years began to pass one by one
I missed my friends despite what they’d done
Fast-forward ten years, I was off in college My dad gets a call from the police with the knowledge
That they’d stopped Earl for running a red light
Checked for warrants, locked him up for the night
The cops said he was a sad sight
Gave up, captured without a fight
Told them his wife was now dead
The women he loved and wed
We supposed it was cancer
My dad gave them the answer
“Let him go, let’s forget it, It’s been a long time
He was a friend once; no it’s all fine”

So I said good-bye to Earl and Fay
Figured Fay was dead and Earl far away
I hung her photo on the wall
It still out there in the hall
That is where the matter rests
Lost a dog and friends failed the test
The statue sat in my mom’s home a long time
Now she’s dead and it sits in mine
St. Francis, as big as life
Blessing the Pearl Divers and my wife
Has grown accustomed to it day by day
Life is strange, friends disappoint they say
Then go along their merry way

I was driving in the city not far away
Believe it or not I saw today
Earl and Fay in a Cadillac grey
Can’t say I stopped to welcome them back, I
Sat in shock, watched them drive by
Easy to see Fay did not die
After all that’s happened I still wish them well
Fay looked a lot older but she still looked swell
Twenty-eight years have passed if a day
Earl’s in his banker’s suit, hair all grey,
If they robed me again what, would I say?
Love and friendship form strange ties
Forgiveness is given despite the lies  
I still want to think that they were my friends
Hard to realize when friendships end
Life goes on with no rhyme or reason
But for Earl and Fay
    it’s just conning season