The Oddly Familiar Story of Sam Frank
by Maxwell Blue
Sam Franks has been living a lie for the last 16 years. Everyone in town knows him as the friendly Diner owner who goes to church on Sundays, but he really is a homosexual from LA who was a co-owner of a chain of hair salons. He and his partner, Mark, were both practicing atheists. Then one day Sam decided to leave his past behind him and move to a small town and that is where he meets Ann, his future wife.
For the next 16 years Sam been faithful to Ann and in that time they have raised a son who now is in high school and a daughter that is in elementary school. One day Sam was at a local rally that was protesting fracking when someone from CNN came up to him with a camera and started interviewing him. He thought nothing of it until it occurred to him that this footage could go national and the people he knew in LA might see it.
A couple days later a few people from out of town walked into Sam’s Diner and tells Sam that they saw him on CNN, but they use his real name, Gregory Zizzo. Ann tells them that they must be mistaken, "Sam doesn’t know anything about running a Salon." Then someone from the group ask, “Why does Sam have such a high level of fashion sense.”
This stuck with Ann because her husband could talk fashion like it was no one else’s business, but she eventually let in drop. Then she received an envelope in the mail containing a photo of Sam with a strange man in his arms in front of a Hair Salon.
“I will always love you” was written at the bottom of the photo and it was sign by Gregory. When Sam came home Ann confronted him with the photo. Sam admitted that he was this Gregory. Ann then rushes off to the bathroom to vomit. Meanwhile the phone rings. Mark is on the line. He wants Gregory to visit him. Without discussing his departure with his wife Gregory leaves to see his former partner. When he gets to Mark’s Mansion Gregory tries to make Mark realize that he is no longer a gay man and he loves his wife. Mark agrees to not interfere again and has Gregory sign some papers to dissolve their partnership. Afterward Gregory travels home and there are a lot of long faces and no one was talking. Gregory’s daughter passes him a plate and Gregory sits down. The end. |