Frankie Part Four, Epilog

Ok, let´s bring this thing to an end.

Frankie has a healthcare nurse-like person, Marta, who visits him in his apartment once a week.
When Marta heard about Marcelo, she reminded Frankie that there is an agency whose mission is to protect the elderly, although it was a little too late for protection in Frankie´s case. Marta said Marcelo needed to be reported to this agency, whose office is actually quite close. I go by it several times per week. Frankie thought that was a good idea, and he made plans to do so.

In the meanwhile, Frankie contacted José Luiz, Marcelo´s roommate and ex-lover. I had tried to talk him out of this, for selfish reasons mostly. I reminded him that, while we both thought José Luiz was honest, we didn´t know he was, and that he, Frankie, needed to have someone else (read, me) present when he met with him. I wanted Frankie to report Marcelo to the agency Marta had told us about, to count himself lucky that he lost no more than he had, learn the appropriate lessons and move on. But Frankie had a connection with José Luiz that went back several years, to the time he and Aida first met Marcelo, and he needed to have this talk with him.

One night I got a call from Frankie about 9 o´clock saying that José Luiz was at the door to the building, so I went over and let him in, and went with him to Frankie´s apartment. He pleaded with Frankie not to report Marcelo to the agency because the two of them had lived together so long that any investigation of Marcelo would end up touching him and his career as well. He promised that he would personally make restitution. Frankie, at his most indecisive best, asked me what I thought he should do. I could tell he wanted to agree to José Luiz´s proposal. My sage advise was to do whatever he wanted, with the proviso that, if he agreed not to report Marcelo at this time, he still reserve the right to do so at some point in the future if José Luiz failed to live up to his agreement. I believe that is how it was left, with the agreed-upon sum of something between R$500 - R$1000. This meeting lasted well over an hour any only ended when I insisted it was past my bedtime. There was too much rehashing of the same details.

José Luiz is an attorney, but more of the bureaucratic than the money-making variety. Frankie and he agreed that they money would be paid in two or three installments. A week or so later Frankie left for Los Angeles, where he will be until early October. I have no idea whether José Luiz has made any payments, but I sure hope he has, because I don´t want to get dragged back into this morass.

Marcelo, by the way, has disappeared. José Luiz said Marcelo was pretty much just curled up on the sofa, not going anywhere or doing anything. He, José Luiz, was going to be kicking him out of the apartment. I have no idea if that has happened. I only know that I used to encounter Marcelo on the street now and then, but I haven´t run into him since the initial show down. And that´s alright with me.

That´s all folks.

Stay tuned. The next installment will be "My Brasilean Root Canal."