Frerard's Freezeria

Citrus Perfume

The curiously shaped outline of Calypso Island made its first appearance after several minutes of pure blue ocean water. The small body of land was remote and consisted more of paradise than of people. In fact, only 12 people currently resided on the Island.

Gerard lived about an hour away from the Island. His home was half an hour away from the seaport, and the ferry ride to the Island itself was about another half hour.

The frail emo man was as pale as they came. He wasn't one for tropical islands, sand, sunbathing...

But due to the evils of the rich upper class, the isolated island was soon to become a hotspot for tourists. Lately, Gerard had been unable to watch TV without hearing about the new shops being built along the shoreside of Calypso.

The evils of tourism went hand in hand with the evils of capitalism. After a year of working in the perfume section at his local JC Penney's, Gerard had been fired by the company for a small mishap. On one of his free days, he had shown up to the very same perfume aisle where he had sold all kinds of fragrances to all different kinds of people and begun to spew the Truth.

In one of his trenchcoat pockets, he had The Communist Manifesto, in the other pocket was Das Kapital. However, in his hands, he held State and Power, written by Vladimir Lenin, which he held up towards the high-ceilings of JC Penney.

Several middle-aged women had gathered around him as he began to hear what everyone needed to hear... what everyone needed to realize before the fall of late-stage capitalism ended everything known to man.

"Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains/"

Gerard's words seemed to make the walls shake. The startled women slowly began to nod, sick and tired of their nine to five jobs. One woman with greying hair who wore coral-colored lipstick began clapping and crying for the words she'd just heard near the citrus perfume display.

However, the citrus perfume was 50% off that week and the woman decided she'd rather smell the oily artificial scents of grapefruit than listen to the emo communist. Gerard couldn't even hate.

Unfortunately, just as Gerard had begun to convince the ladies to overthrow the government, his manager came up to him with a stern look on his face.

"What the fuck, Gerard?"

Although his manager, Ricardo, was typically a kind soul that cared deeply about the world in a way that nobody else in the universe could emulate, Gerard knew that he had gone too far.

"I- I- I- I- can explain...."

"Save it. You're fired."

Just like that, the best job Gerard had ever had was taken from him.

Times were as tough as ever, and although several people were refusing to be employed at Calypso Island due to the unethical nature of large corporations destroying the land for tourism, Gerard knew what he needed in order to survive.

He had called every listing he'd found until somebody replied.

Ring.

"H-H-H-H-Hello?"

"Gerard Lancaster Petra Way?"

Gerard gasped, not the slightest bit perturbed that the man on the other line had horribly gotten his name wrong. Like, extremely wrong.

"P-P-P-Papa? Is that you?"

"Yes, Gerard. It is I."

Gerard couldn't believe he was speaking to the man of his dreams. The slouched, big-mustached, bald man that had become a success overnight. Had it been any other person that owned a chain of businesses, Gerard would've been disgusted.

"Does this mean..."

Gerard couldn't even bring himself to say it, a lump already forming in his throat.

"Yes, Gerald. You're hired."

Papa waited for Gerard to stop crying.

"You start on Monday. You'll be opening my Freezeria shop with another boy around your age. He's lived on the island his whole life."

"What's his name, Papa?"

"Frank Iero."