Affirmation

AFFIRMATION
 
      
                          

Alfonzo Volume VIII

COPYRIGHT 2012 S.W. FRANK

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system in any form without prior written permission of the author.
Piracy of the book is a crime. Alfonzo detests thieves and liars, he also believes in Karma. Sometimes it is not laws which govern a person, it is what a person does when nobody watches which is the test of good character and the law of self.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and events portrayed in this story are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

                          
Dedication

T
hank you
to my wonderful
family, book
clubs
, the Inner Circle and VIP Divas. A special thank you to
Tiffany Edmonds, you are the best
chica. I appreciate everything you’ve done
and
to
Karen M., thanks for
being eyes in
the
darkness
and helping me
see.

To the lovers and the broken-hearted. Even in the
deepest
depths of the ocean floor comes light.

                       -S.W.Frank
                   

“First say to yourself what you would be:

And then do what you have to do.”

                     -Epictetus

Blurry

God made you for me and me for you

How I know this

He'd shown me throughout my dreams

Slipped

Confused my dream with my fantasy

Lost

For a while everything

Hunger for another

Pain caused spread like cancer

Unable to walk the road destined

Focus came through remembrance

Now with tears in my eyes I look down and cry

Again a third time my dream rewarded me with eyes like

Mine

Forever yours

You’re forever mine

Happiness not in moments but a lifetime.

                                         
-Kim Curry

"
Never forget the road which led to your destination,

Those
who have are often the travelers
most lost."

                                          
-Alfonzo

Chapters

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-one

Twenty-two

Twenty-three

Twenty-four

Twenty-five

Twenty-six

Twenty-seven

Twenty-eight

Prologue

The
end of
w
inter
and the prospect of warmer climate gave Sergio something to look forward to, except th
e
lingering frost season
seemed
reluctant to go away. Apparently, it loved bringing hardship to a dude who preferred
temperature
s
above fifty degrees. He only
stayed in New York
because it’s where the action happened
, although presently
things weren’t looking too good
.
Frankly,
his
primary
plans
of a get rich quick
scheme
hadn’t
yielded the returns expected, matter of fact, it’d put him deeper in debt with seedy characters he’d rather forget. The
only
viable
option
was
his least favorite and it came with the most
resistance.

The rapper Jay Z and Alicia Keys modernized the phrase, ‘concrete jungle where dreams are made of,’
in
a musical version of th
is
New York mantra. 
There’s
one thing
for
certain,
if you didn’t have a vision
,
New York can
eat you up and ground you down to the
bone.

Sergio began to think, it
’s
a
lso
a place
where
the
destitute die
believing they’
ve
liv
ed
,
and the
wealthy survive
by
chew
ing
on the meat of hardworking
souls.
He desperately wanted out and to do it, he revised his entire game plan. His cousin,
Alfonzo Diaz was
the
ticket
and Sergio intended to use it.

After reflecting on what
Alfonzo
said,
Sergio enrolled in a
n evening c
ourse on The Fundamentals of Construction at
a
local c
ommunity
c
ollege
.
H
e
really
didn’t know
anything
about
construction
and t
his
course proved
it.
Spackling, weight bearing walls, NYC Building Codes, OSHA
regulations
and much more were covered. Physical labor isn’t what he thought he’d be doing for a living, but the fundamentals were needed if he ever wanted access to Alfonzo’s business.
Each week the students were tested
on building materials and estimating
.
Sergio
barely
passed the exams
. He didn’t care about scoring high
, what mattered is he accomplished a goal and once Alfonzo saw the certificate, he’d
see
Sergio meant business. He had the fancy sheet of paper with his name on
it tucked securely
in his pocket.

Tonight, he was going home to eat,
relax
for a minute and then hit the club
to
celebrat
e
his accomplishment
.
He
massaged t
he peach fuzz on his chin and stretched his neck to glimpse his reflection
in the rearview mirror
while at
a red light.
He needed a shave,
that’s for sure,
otherwise he looked good for a broke motherfucker
. But
, looks
fade
and the ladies are vocal when it does. You better have some money
when it does
because there’s nothing appealing about poverty on a busted-ass man!

The
light turned green and
Sergio
proceeded
down
Surf Avenue
, scanning the dark streets
from the confines of his
BMW
and
thought about how crappy it looked compared to the tropical splendor of Puerto Rico.

The
public housing complex
where he lived existed alongside
similar
Soviet style b
uildings
perpendicular to the Atlantic Ocean. 
You’d think an ocean view meant something; it didn’t when you live in a dreary
project with
tenants who didn’t take pride in anything
except making your life a living hell.

The
building
sat atop acres of prime real estate
which
gluttonous swine salivated to get their hands on. The only problem
is the
land was property of the NYCHA
and the
city wasn’t
giving it up. They’d
receive
flak
from every advocacy group wh
ich
championed the poor
. He could imagine the public outcry if they considered
displac
ing tho
usands of
low-
income families
, many who were elderly and
lived there for decades
.

Politicians
were greedy, but they weren’t stupid. They
wanted their jobs
. There were many perks associated with
government positions
.

Sergio drove into the parking lot
of
his building and noticed someone
had the audacity to
park their
SUV in his
desig
nated spot. Motherfuckers violated the tenant parking rules and the dumb-ass security didn’t do anything about it. He got out his car, took the retractable blade from his pocket and slashed
every one of
the tires. “Take that bitch!” He growled
before
angrily
climbing inside
his car and driving
outside the complex
to locate
a
safe
area to leave his car until he returned.

Twenty minutes later, he walked the
long
path to his building and stopped to g
reet a group of
dudes
he knew from the building. They were beneath the dim lights, right in the open smoking
weed and
shooting
dice.

“What’s up
son
?”
One of the men
sporting
jeans and an oversize North Face jacket asked
.

They
exchanged shoulder contact
and a handgrip,
“I’m good.”
Sergio responded then
gave an
up
-
chin
to
the
teen
shaking the
die
in his clenched fist
,
“What’s up Lil T?”

“Nothin’ much Serge
,” Lil T said and then he stepped away from the group
and gestured with his head for Sergio to follow
, “
Yo, let me holla at you for a minute.”

When they were out of earshot, Lil T gave
Sergio
the 411
, “Yo son, there was some dude asking about you
a while ago
. Motherfucker didn’t look too right
.
If I were you I’d bounce
right now
son.”

An uneasy feeling crept up
Sergio’s
spine. He was fifty in the hole with a loan-shark from Canarsie and
another ten down from a bad investment
in funny money. He’d managed to hold off his debtors with promises of repayment
. H
e didn’t have the funds to pay anybody
and h
is
contingency
plan was to get
his
certificate, and skip the hell out of town before anybody got wise. Apparently, somebody grew impatient and came looking.