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Charlie Nickles · (08-22-2020)

Charlie: What the fuck do you mean?!

Charlie was seated on the floor in the corner of the room, tugging on his beard with both hands. His face looked dirty and his hair greasy. Tears were streaming down his eyes and wetting his pants as they dripped down his cheeks. His phone was on the ground next to him, set to speaker.

Voice: She filed a protection order and they granted it to her. It’s straight forward. Nothing we can do about it for 90 days.

Charlie: That vindictive bitch! Tyler’s birthday is next month. She’s doing this just to separate him from me! Because the kids can see through her bullshit, they know their mom is a lying whore! They want to be back with me. Get my kids back from that bitch!

Voice: You need to calm down. There is nothing we can do about it. It’s just a temporary order, in 90 days we get our day in court.

Charlie: What the fuck am I paying you for? I paid you to get my kids back! And now, I have no contact with them! What the fuck, Chuck?!

Chuck: I know how to work the system but I can’t move mountains. I told you, family court is a long battle. Don’t stress about a 90 day order, this is a year long trial we’re looking at. Minimum. Maybe even two years, if her lawyers drag it out.

Charlie: I want my kids tomorrow, Chuck! I’m not going to let her turn those kids against me for two years. I’ll kill the bitch if I have to!

Chuck: WOAH! I’m your lawyer, so I have to tell you right now it is against the law to murder your ex-wife and that it is highly counter-productive. That’s not going to help you get your kids back. Just trust the process. And by the way? Don’t say that ever again, to anyone! You need to get your act together. You need to chill out on the violence and the wrestling. A career change could really help our odds in court.

Charlie: SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Charlie grabbed the phone and chucked it across the room in a raging heat. His face was red, his beard wet, and his determination unshaken. The phone shattered against the wall upon impact. Charlie pushed himself up to his feet and made a b-line to the door of the motel room. He picked his keys up off the desk and walked out into the parking lot.

Charlie: Ahh son of a bitch..

Charlie brought his hand up to shade his eyes as the overbearing morning sun greeted him. Charlie made his way to the only car in the parking lot, a 1992 Pontiac Grand Am. Originally gray, this hoopty had long since lost most of its paint and gained some rust around the edges. Charlie opened the driver’s side door with more force than necessary causing the door to swing loudly against the hinges. Charlie plops himself into the driver’s seat before shutting the door and starting the engine.

Vrrrr-vrrr-vrr-vrrrrum-ererer

Vrrrr-vrrrr--vrrr--vruuum-erer

Vrruuuum vrruuuum

It takes a few tries but soon the car is running. Charlie throws it in reverse and treks a familiar path to his former home. Left on Madison, right on Oak, take the second left onto Nelson and there it is across the street at the intersection of Lowell and Holloway. He pulls up in front of a yellow two-story home on the outskirts of the town. Charlie opens his door and hops out of the vehicle, walking up to the front door of the house with haste.

KNOCK KNOCK

A few moments pass with no response.

KNOCK KNOCK

Still no response.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Charlie grows agitated as the door remains closed. He rings the doorbell a few times.

Charlie: Connie, I know you’re home! Let me in!

Charlie's heavy fists start to pound on the front door. The scurrying of feet is heard inside the house.

Charlie: Let me in! Those are my kids, you bitch! You whore! I’ll gut you!

Charlie continues to bang on the door as a dark blue car pulls into the driveway. The 2009 ford focus parks and a familiar face soon steps out of the driver’s door. Connie stands up just as the camera pans out to show a full shot of the house. The faces of two young children can be seen peaking through the blinds of a second story window.

Connie: What are you doing?

Charlie: I’m here to see my kids!

Connie: Are you high right now?

Connie spoke with an expression of concern, not anger.

Charlie: I don’t get high, Connie. I take my medicine. You think you know better than my doctor?

Connie: Your doctor doesn’t prescribe you heroin.

Charlie: Shut your mouth! I’ve been clean for years! And I’m taking the kids. They can’t be trusted with a lying whore. Don’t make me break those windows again!

The kids scurry away from the second floor window.

Connie: You need to leave or I’m going to call the police.

Charlie: I pay your bills! This house is mine! You kicked me out, but I’ve been paying that mortgage each and every month! I make the money. The kids are coming with me!

Connie's once calm demeanor shifts into an expression of pure rage.

Connie: How fucking cracked out are you? You don’t even pay child support! For six months, Charles! You haven’t paid! You’ve been off wrestling with men in tights! Beating people with chairs! You’re fucking worthless!

The two children come back to the window with a large home telephone in the hand of the girl, who appears to be a few years older than her younger brother.

Charlie: I’m about to be big time, baby! You can’t see the truth because you're blinded by selfishness and hate. Now let me in that house!

Connie crosses her arms as she shakes her head from side to side. Tears begin to drip down her cheeks.

Charlie: This is bullshit! The past is the past, let it go! I’m a new man now! The family man.

Connie says nothing as the tears continue to build.

Charlie: You fucking bitch! You can’t keep my kids from me! I am their FATHER, you WHORE!

Charlie starts walking aggressively towards Connie just as a police cruiser pulls up in front of the house. The officer steps out of the vehicle and approaches the former couple. The officer is skinny and lean, with a brown buzz cut and a clean shaven face. A scowl spreads across Charlie's face as he turns to face the officer of the law.

Officer: Didn’t you get the memo, Charles? You got about five seconds to get back in that piece of shit car before I haul you downtown, big boy.

Charlie’s eyes drift down to the belt of the officer. His gaze fixates for a few moments on the officer’s handgun. After an uncomfortable amount of silence Charlie brings his gaze up to make eye contact with the officer.

Charlie: Just passing through.

Officer: Better pass quicker. I don’t want to do the paperwork, but if you don’t get your fat ass off this property I don't have a choice.

The officer brings his hand down to the cuffs on his belt. Charlie looks at the officer, then looks back to Connie. As she looks away from him his gaze shifts to the ground. He starts to slouch back to his car. Charlie takes a few steps before turning back and looking at the second story windows. He makes eye contact with the children for a moment before the children run back into the safety of the home. Charlie looks back at Connie, scowls, then steps into the road and hops in his whip. Charlie starts the car and speeds off. He looks in the rear window exactly one time. The camera follows his gaze, and we see the cop hugging a sobbing Connie. Charlie pushes the pedal to the medal and dips out as the scene fades to black.

The shot opens with a wide frame in front of a Best Buy. The sun is approaching the center of the sparsely clouded sky. The camera slowly begins to zoom in on a familiar car parked in front of the store. Charlie is in the driver’s seat with a cigarette in his mouth and a can of busch light in his hand. Charlie looks over to the camera before rolling down his window. The camera has now zoomed in so far that the entire frame is occupied by the driver's front window. Charlie spits the cigarette out of his mouth onto the ground.

Charlie: Fuckin’ covid. Best Buy only doing online orders now, thanks dipshit DeWine.

Charlie takes a few swigs from his busch light before throwing the empty can out of the open window. The beer can smacks against the camera before falling to the ground. A few yellow droplets from the can stick to the lens of the camera.

Charlie: You know I really do my best to be a good father. Everything I do is for my children. But that bitch Connie doesn’t care. She just wants to hurt me, because the ring rats loved me when I was on the road. That’s not my fault. And it’s damn sure not the fault of Tyler and Emily! But that bitch wants to punish them. Keep them away from their daddy. It ain’t right, you know.

The camera pans out and we see the automatic doors of the Best Buy opening as a young woman comes out carrying a plastic bag with the store logo on it. Her ginger hair goes down to her blue polo. Her company mask only partially covers the freckles on her face. Charlie rolls down the passenger window as she approaches.

Employee: Charlie?

Charlie: That's me, baby! How’d you know? You been watching me in action every week?

Employee: Uhm...the order we have here is for Charlie. A dashcam, an iphone 11 pro max, and two mac laptops...is that your order?

Charlie nods.

Employee: And in the special notes you said you’d pay by personal check?

Charlie: Always about the money with you people, huh? That’s no problem. Charlie’s big time now. How much do I owe you?

The employee looks down at the receipt.

Employee: After tax it comes out to 2,367 dollars and eighty two cents.

Charlie: Not a problem. I made it big time, you know? This is nothing for a pro athlete like me to spend.

Employee: Umm..ok. You can make the check payable to Best Buy.

Charlie: You know sweetie, you’d be a lot cuter without that mask. Why don’t you take it off for me so I can see you smile?

Employee: It’s a state policy that I have to keep the mask on….sorry, sir.

Charlie: It’s okay sweetie, I won’t tell anyone if you want to break the rules for little ol’ Charlie.

Employee: Umm...so…..you can make the check payable to Best Buy.

Charlie puts his hands up in the air with a jovial smile, as if to feign frustration.

Charlie: It’s always about money with girls like you. But hey, that’s ok. I’m a man of means. Let me write that check for you baby.

Charlie opens the center console of his vehicle. After a few seconds of searching he fetches a pen and his checkbook. He takes the pen to the checkbook and puts the tip of the ink on the paper. He’s about to write the check, before suddenly dropping the pen and turning his focus back to the woman.

Charlie: Have you ever wanted to go on an adventure, darling? Nothing but you, me, and the open roads. No one to stop us on our journey. No one to tell us what to do. No one to hear our cries of pleasure.

Employee: It’s going to be 2,367 dollars and eighty two cents, and then I can drop this bag off in your car and you can enjoy your new purchase.

Charlie: You ever listen to that Cardi B and Miranda The Stallion song? Makes me think of you. I can’t stop thinking about your wet as-

Employee: We have a lot of orders today, sir...so if you can write the check we ca-

Charlie: That’s all it is with women like you! Money, money, money. But that's ok. Baby, give me another chance. I’m not selling it well right now.

Employee: I have a boyfriend.

Charlie: That’s ok, I have a wife. You can hop in here, we can take those laptops to my kids and then it’s just you, me, and the open roads. Don’t you want to know where I’m going? Where I can take you? We’re going west coast, baby. It’s going to be a wild ride to Cal-E-fornication-yeah! Got some unfinished business. You know I’m a professional wrestler, right, baby?

Employee: I really need to get back to work…

Charlie: Baby listen. I don’t think you’re getting the right picture of me. I’m a family man. A decent man. A loving man. And you know, I’ve got a lot of love to give. And I need someone to receive all that love, someone I can just pump full of love night after night after night. You’re probably thinking I’m one of those deadbeat losers like Reggie Estrada, you know, just because he’s playing that whole ‘broken family’ gimmick now. I’m nothing like him, don’t even worry about it.

Employee: I, I don’t know who that is...sir, can you please write the che-

Charlie: You don’t know Reggie? Oh baby let me tell you. Let me tell you. That man is no good. Nothing like me, I’m a loving man. A decent man. A man you can trust. Why don’t you sit down and have a drink for this story.

Charlie pats the empty seat besides him with his hand before reaching into the backseat. It takes him a while to find what he is looking for, and soon most of his body is out of frame as he searches. About half a minute later he comes back into view holding a mostly empty six pack of busch lights. Only two beers were left in the plastic packaging.

Charlie: You want one?

Employee: I really need to get back to work sir. You need to write the check or I need to go ba-

Charlie: Calm down, you’re going to get your money.

Charlie tosses the two beers onto the floor of the passenger seat. He turns his attention back to the checkbook on his lap. He picks up the pen and fills out the check while the employee looks on anxiously. Charlie places the pen back in the center console before ripping the check out of the book. He returns the book to his center console before closing the console and turning his gaze back to the employee.

Charlie: So get this: so Reggie has a daughter, right? But he doesn’t give a damn about her. He left her in the care of an abusive drug dealer who probably rapes her every night. Probably lets the junkies pay extra to take turns on her. You heard of that whole save our children thing? Someone needs to save this girl. And I’m going to do it.

The woman gasps, bringing her hands up to her masked face.

Charlie: Or at least that’s my working theory. But get this, it goes even deeper. Reggie goes waaaay back with this man who sells his daughter’s little coochie to the local junkies. Reggie and this latino Epstein used to be in the same gang, you know? They ran drugs, sex trafficking, armed robberies, the whole lot. Even bucked a few shots off at some poor store clerk. Reggie lets this monster have his child just so he can pursue a failed wrestling career. Someone needs to save this girl, and someone needs to teach those two child sex traffickers a lesson. I’m going to shove a light tube so far up Reggie’s ass he’ll be shitting glass shards for weeks.

Employee: Those monsters!

Charlie: I know, I know. Can you believe the court system lets monsters like Reggie keep custody of their children? Those same judges strip hard working fathers like me of their parental rights. It just isn’t right. But I’m going to make it right. You want to hop in this pontiac and help make a difference in this world? Fight by my side?

Employee: I’m sorry sir I can’t. I couldn’t afford to miss the shifts. But I hope you kick their ass and save that little girl!

Charlie nods and smiles. He hands the check over to the employee who accepts it while carefully setting the plastic bag down on the empty passenger seat.

Charlie: Tell me this, baby…..how much more do I have to pay to see your tits right now? Just real quick, for Charlie?

The woman scoffs before turning her back on Charlie and walking away. Charlie shrugs, a devilish grin curled across his lips. He reaches into the bag and pulls out the iphone. He swiftly rips it out of it’s packaging before holding the power button. Charlie waits a few seconds for the device to turn on. His gaze shifts back into the bag as he looks at the laptops inside it.

Charlie: You know what? Tyler and Emily haven’t been acting right lately. They don’t deserve these laptops. Maybe Miranda will appreciate one.

Charlie looks back to phone as it turns on to a home screen.

Charlie: Siri?

Siri: Hello. What should I call you?

Charlie: Call me….daddy.

Siri: Ok daddy.

Charlie: Siri, take me to San Diego.

Siri: Yes daddy.

The camera zooms out as the car speeds off. The camera fades out as the speeding vehicle leaves the frame.

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