Maria Diaz-Vargas and her husband, Luis Vargas Romero owned and operated the Mexican diner, El Puerto Libre, where Frank Castle visited everyday. To him, she served the best chicken mole around. As he enters the diner he realizes that the place is jam packed. He stands at the door looking to his left and to his right. His eyes are shrunken in and where there should be white in the eyes there was red. Frank is tall and lean, with a residue of muscle which creates a shadow of the six-pack he had when he was younger. He has coal black hair with specks of gray which is combed down onto his face and he looks like a lost little boy, but from the wrinkles on his face and the gray in the little facial hair he has you know that he is not, but he is an aged older version of who he once was.

Maria sees him enter and waves him over, “Frank, come, sit. I saved your place for you. Close the door, You think I'm heating the whole neighborhood? Come.”

Frank closes the diner door, and as he does so, the chime on back of the door rings. He heads in Maria's direction and when he reaches her he greets her affectionately. “Hey Maria, how are you today,” leaning over the counter to kiss her on her cheek, a gesture that have been going on between them for many years, since her papa died.

“The same as yesterday, and the day before that when you asked me Frank. Nothing has changed. The rent on this place has gone up and I still do not know how I am going to keep this diner open, but if it was not for you and your daily order of my chicken mole and your extra order of a burger and fries I do not know what I would do. Ha ha ha.”

“Maria, it will all work out, you do not have to worry that pretty little head of yours,” then Frank winced as the words came out of his mouth.

Then Maria smiled at him and patted his hands as she put his order on the spindle for the cook through the open kitchen window. Then she turned to ask him, “Frank, why do you still order that extra meal?”

He looked up at her and there was one tear slowly rolling down his face and said, “Because someone may come in here hungry or maybe they may have had a little too much to drink and may need something on their stomach, or... .”

Maria's lips turned up at the corners into a wisp of a smile, “I know Frank, I know. Let me go and check on your food for you,” which she knew was ready. The food for Frank was always prepared first thing, early in the morning. After the customers saw his plate, she couldn't keep the large amount of chicken mole on hand that was prepared fresh daily.

While she was in the back, Frank turned around on his green leathered upholstered stool and looked around the diner and thought about how long he had been coming there. Every stool at eh white ceramic counter was either red or green. The diner was decorated in matching red and green booths with a white table top and the floor was still checkered green, white and red tiles. Yeah, as he began to think back, a long time.

~~~~~~

“Frank come on, we only get forty-five minutes for lunch.”

I'm coming James, my laces have become undone on my boots, go on, I will be there. Order me chicken mole.”

“I know, that is all you ever order from here, what is up with that? Ha ha ha”

Still trying to get the knot out of his work boot, Frank looked up at his friend who had stopped to turn and look at him, “I do not know what it is, it is just the best meal I have ever had. I do not know what the cook is doing to it, but I tell you, whoever the cook is they know what they are doing.”

As James was turning to go on, Frank went back to his boot. James Lancaster had been Frank's friend since high school. He was tall, and spindly with deep brown eyes, dark brown hair and as the years progressed his face became weathered from working outside in the hot sun. He and Frank had worked construction jobs right out of high school. They did everything together. They even fell for the same girl in high school, Blanche Morgan, a curvaceous blonde with ice blue eyes, lips that always looked like she was puckering up for a kiss and they were always were painted with the reddest lipstick ever, but damn, she looked good. Although James is the one Blanche ended up with, it never stopped Frank from loving her. To make matters worse, James had a secret that he kept to himself, something he and no one knew about until years later and the secret was about to come out in the next few days.

When Frank made it to the diner, he noticed a commotion going on over to his right. He was about to ignore it to look for his buddy, when he heard James' voice over in the midst of the commotion. “Look, all I was doing was rubbing her hair, that is all. She is a pretty little thing,” as he was continuing to reach for her.

When Frank looked at the object of James' attention, he saw that it was a girl, no older than thirteen or fourteen years of age and an older man, who he knew as senór

Senór Diaz was angry and shouting in Spanish, “Que puso sus manos todo por mi hija, no me gusta eso, no, no. Sácalo de aquí!

When James turned to face him directly, that's when Frank knew that his friend had been drinking. When did it happen? When did he have time to drink? They have been up twenty stories high working on the new complex at the construction site one block over since early morning. “I saw this pretty little thing here and I just wanted to touch her, her hair is so pretty.”

“Come on James, we gotta go.”

“Wha' do you mean, we gotta go? We came here for some lunch and that is what we are gonna do, eat lunch.”

It was as if James was getting drunker right before his very eyes, “All right James,” looking at Senór Diaz, “Can we get our orders to go?”

Twisting his hand in the air and bringing it down hard on the counter, “No Frank, we are gonna eat right here. I promise I will be good.”

Frank looked at Senór Diaz, who, from the Spanish spoken that the girl was his daughter, and he was hiding her behind his back. “I will watch him, I promise you,” and he shook his head up and down. He showed then to a booth in the back of the diner near the bathroom. Once they were settled in, Frank ordered the chicken mole and when he asked James what he wanted, he just shook his head and said, “I don't care, order me anything, I have to use the can”

While James was in the bathroom, Frank had ordered him what he had always saw him eating, a burger and some fries. For himself, he had the chicken mole with rice, tortillas, salad, sliced avocados and tomatoes. As he was about to go see what was taking James so lone, he was coming out.

Immediately he knew what was taking him such a long time, you could smell it on his breath. When James was just about to take his seat, the young girl was bringing their food to the table and that is when James grabbed her, holding on to her tight, feeling her chest and breathing her hair. Frank had never seen James act this way. “James! Let her go. What on earth is wrong with you man? James!”

James pushed the girl away from him, straight into Frank, Then he ran out of the diner, right into oncoming traffic...where he died instantly. Frank could not believe what had just happened, not too long ago they were laughing and talking and going to lunch. What was going on with James? Would he ever know?

As he went back into the diner to pay the tab after the ambulance took James' covered body away to the morgue, he heard Senór Diaz tell the little girl, Maria, bag Mr. Frank's food to go.”

“How much do I owe you?”

“Nada. You have helped me and my family much already, and today you have lost your friend. Do you want the other order?”

“No, give it to someone,it is paid for,and thank you.”

Looking down at the little girl standing quietly behind Senór Diaz, “Is this your daughter?”

“Si, she just came from Mexico. She was the one who has been preparing your meal, that is her specialty. She is usually in the kitchen, that is why you have never seen her. My regular help is out sick today.”

Frank stooped down to her level and said, “Maria, it is Maria, right?”

The girl shook her head up and down, and whispered, “Si.”

Frank went on to say, with tears in his eyes, “Maria, I am so sorry for my friend and how he treated you. As a young lady or lady of any age you should never be treated that way.”

When Frank rose to go, he looked like a man twice his age. When he turned to go, Maria grabbed his hand and looked up at him with big doleful eyes, “Gracias amigo” then she turned back to her papa

That was September 16, 1968 and as Frank was going out the door, he turned to look at the wall to the far right and right above the green, white and red flag of Mexico, one of the workers was hanging a Mexican coat of arms. A Mexican golden eagle perched on a cactus and the eagle is devouring a snake with its beak, which represents the victory of good over evil.

A few days later Frank found out what set James off. Blanche, his wife of seventeen years was divorcing him after his promise of no more drinking. Frank had come to find out that whenever James would have a drink he liked to touch young girls, Frank never found out if it went beyond touching and in actuality that was something he did not want to ever know of the man he called friend. When Blanche found out that James had started drinking again, she just felt that she could not take it anymore. That was her nightmare, that her husband was a pedophile, and she did not know who she could confide in, especially not Frank, it was too embarrassing.

How she found out was by accident, when she went into his office to clean it. As she was straightening the papers on his desk she wanted to take them and put them in the desk drawer. Blanche found a manila envelope taped underneath the desk drawer when she went to pull it out, but it became stuck on something, and as she searched the drawer there was nothing, so she pulled the drawer out enough to peek underneath it, and there it was a big yellow envelope full of pictures of little girls. Where he got them from she did not know,and worst of all she did not know if he had ever been with a child, so she gave him an ultimatum...get help for his problem or she would divorce him and and everything would come out in court.

Although James received help from a psychiatrist on a continual basis it seemed that part of him could not be contained. That was the beginning of James' downward spiral with alcohol, and he was good at being able to hide the fact that he had been drinking. If you did not know he was an alcoholic, you would not know. He was that good at hiding it. As Blanche continued to explain, she thought he was getting better, but the urge must have gotten hold of him again and he began drinking again, but the kicker to the other demon must have been when he saw the girl Maria in the diner. He had to have been fighting those urges constantly.

~~~~~~

“Frank! Frank, what's wrong with you, helllloooo, Frank!”

“Huh? Oh, I’m sorry Maria, I was somewhere else for a minute.”

“Are you sure you are okay? Your eyes are red and sunken in, what is going on papa?”

“Nothing Maria, you do not have to worry about an old man. How's that husband and daughter of yours?”

“I see you are changing the subject, you are not slick, but anyway they are fine. Luis is working long hours at the hospital and Gabriela is doing great in school. She is always talking about her Tio Frank, she cannot wait to see you.”

“Her uncle cannot wait to see her either,when will she be home?”

“In a month. She'll be here for the holidays.”

Maria noticed that Frank was squeezing his eyes tight, as if he was in pain. “Frank...”

“Great, well I gotta go,” Frank stood up and leaned over the counter and kissed Maria on the cheek. Bye honey, I love you.”

Maria shook when Frank said that. It sounded so ominous. “Frank, are you all right?”

Frank just kept walking toward the door. He switched the food from one hand to the other and he lifted his free hand up and waved.

~~~~~~

It had been a few weeks since Frank had come by the diner, and Maria was worried. Everyday she made his favorite meal, chicken mole and the same side dishes he always ordered from day one. She had come from Mexico with that recipe under her belt. Her abuela taught her to make it to perfection. “Este plato le dará un marido,” her grandmother would always tell her. She did not know about it getting her a husband, but it got her a friend for life in Frank.

One day Maria was wiping down the counters in the diner, then she stopped and put one hand on her hip and looked around. She realized that everything was as it was when she was a child. Green, white and red were the colors of the diner, colors that her papa was so proud of, as well he should be, they were the colors of home, Mexico. There were pictures of their country and familia hanging on the walls, and on the far right wall as you were facing the diner door was their flag with the symbol that was adopted in 1968, the same day Frank's friend died, right after he... . As Maria was thinking of the past, the same door chime that had been hanging on the door for years, rang. Maria watched as a woman walked in, she began washing her hands in the sink behind the counter and she could not help but think that this woman looked familiar. “Buenas noches senora. How may I help you?”

This place looks the same. I have not been here for years. This must be Maria. My God, she was a child when I saw her last. “Hi, my name is Blanche, Blanche Castle, I’m Frank's wife.”

Now I know why she looks familiar, she was not Castle many years ago, she was Lancaster, Blanche Lancaster, the wife of Frank's friend, James. Then she was the quintessential blond, blue-eyed sexy, how they say, bombshell of the day. When did Frank marry her?

~~~~~~

Maria was cleaning off the tables when the chime on the door rang as the door opened. In walked this mujer hermosa. She had hair the color of straw and she had a flowered head scarf on, tied underneath her chin. She looked like she glided across the room to where her papa stood. Maria could see her lips moving as she talked to her papa Maria could not take her eyes off of her mouth, because she had never seen lipstick that red before. The woman had stopped talking and now she was looking at her, then she heard her name being called, “Maria. Maria, ven aqui. Esta mujer le gustarìa hablar con usted.”

Maria thought, what could this woman have to say to me, “Bien papa”

As the woman went and sat in the booth in the back near the bathroom, Maria followed her and sat across from her and immediately she noticed the perfume she was wearing. It was very subtle, almost as if she was not wearing anything, but it was there a fresh clean scent, reminiscent of the Yucca plant. “Maria, I wanted to come by and apologize for everything my husband did to you, or said to you, before he ran out of here. I want you, no, I need you to know that it was not your fault. My husband had been sick... .”

While the woman continued talking Maria could not understand, what her husband did to her? Then as if a light came on in her mind, it came to her, her husband was Mr. Frank's friend. When she was done, the woman stood up and asked Maria if she could give her a hug.

“Si senorita,” what would this mujer think if she knew that this was the same spot where her husband hugged me.

Blanche Castle held out her hand to Maria, and she looked at it before deciding to take it. “Yes, I remember you. You came here many years ago.”

~~~~~~

There was a frantic knocking at my door, and when I opened it, it was Frank and immediately I knew something had happened to James. ”Frank, what is it?” As she was looking around Frank, looking for James, “Where is James?” As he stood there in my foyer, looking at me I knew what he had to tell me was not good.

Not knowing how to soften the blow, except to just come out and tell her, he blurted it out. “Blanche, James is dead. He ran out of the diner where we eat lunch everyday and ran into the street into oncoming traffic.”

As Frank was talking, Blanche couldn't understand what would drive James to run out of the diner like that, unless...”Frank, had James been drinking?”

Another thing he didn't know how to tell her, so he had to be straightforward, “Yes, but I didn't see him take a drink. We had been on the twentieth floor and he didn't not have a bottle, I swear Blanche.”

Blanche could see that he was having a hard time, so she grabbed one of his hands and patted it, “Don't worry about that, he has always had his ways of hiding what he didn't want anyone to know. Now, tell me something else. Right before he ran out of the diner, was there a, ummmm, a young girl around...a minor?”

She could tell that he still wasn't getting it, so she knew that she would have to explain everything to him. So she directed him to the couch to sit while she told him James' story. As she did Frank just kept shaking his head while it was in his hand,and he was uttering the words, “No, no, no.” Why didn't I know this about him? How could I not know? How could he keep something like this a secret?”

Blanche then told him how she had found out by cleaning his desk in his office one day, and that that was when she had given him the ultimatum of getting help or a divorce. As she continued talking, Frank stood up and walked to Blanche and pulled her into his arms and just held her as tight as he could. Although Blanche knew she had to resist, she wanted to melt in his arms.

When Frank told Blanche about Maria, she felt that she had to go and see this little girl and apologize for what her husband did to her. “Frank, I need to go and see this young lady. I don't know how many girls had been affected by James in the past, so I can't go see them, but this one I feel like I need to; to let her know that it wasn't anything she had done.” Blanche, still being held by Frank, looked up into his eyes, and tears, were just beginning to fall from her eyes. “Do you think that would be all right?”

Frank, holding onto her, knew right then that his love for her had come out of the box. While she was with James, he kept the love locked away in his heart, but now...”Yes. Yes, that would be great, I think. I talked to her right after it happened, but yeah, that sounds good. I'll call senór Diaz later today and set it up for you.”

When Blanche entered the diner she sought out the man Frank said was Maria's papa, senór Diaz. It wold have been inappropriate to talk to the young girl without permission from her parents. So while they stood off to the side talking, Blanche could see who she knew had to be Maria, a beautiful young girl, out of the corner of her eye staring at her, probably wondering who she was. Explaining who she was and why she was there to senór Diaz, although she knew Frank had already explained to him why she wanted to do what she wanted to do, was no easy feat. She saw that he was a strong man of character and it tool all she could to hold back the anger for James that he brought upon this family.

When senór Diaz allowed her to talk to his daughter, Blanche went to one of the booths in the back for privacy, while her papa explained who she was. After talking and apologizing to Maria, she asked if she could hug her and she had the strangest sensation come over her.

After the funeral Frank and Blanche saw more and more of each other. Frank still ate at the diner everyday, and he and Blanche was getting closer and closer to each other. After about a year they decided to get married.

One afternoon when Frank was at the diner, senór Diaz was issued a summons. The bank wanted to foreclose on the diner. When the sheriff left, senór Diaz grabbed his chest and it looked like he was having a heart attack. Frank helped him to a booth and had a glass of water brought to him. As Frank rode with him to the hospital in the ambulance, he was really glad that Maria was in school, he didn't want her to see her papa in this condition, he asked senór Diaz what was going on. Hardly being able to catch his breath, senór Diaz told him how they were not making enough money to keep the diner running and that they may have to close and go back to Mexico.

Frank looked like a man in deep thought, then his eyes lit up, “Don't worry senór Diaz, I have an idea. I'll get back to you when you're released from the hospital. I just want you getting well, and don't think abut nothing else my friend. Senór Diaz closed his eyes and shook his head up and down, while Frank appeared to be thinking about his next move.

As Blanche reminiscenced about the past she knew one thing about Frank, and what made her proud of him proud of him was how he knew how to take care of important matters without hesitation.

~~~~~~

Blanche had come to the diner, Maria had no idea that she was coming to invite her and her family to their house for dinner. There was something she wanted to talk to them about. Blanche was being mysterious and Maria wanted to know where Frank was, he hadn't been to the diner in a while so she knew she was going to be there.

As Maria, Luis and Gabriella was driving to Frank's and Blanche's house Maria was taken aback by the area they were driving through, it was beautiful. She had never been on this side of town, the landscape, the houses that looked like mini mansions and how clean it all looked, so polished. When they reached the house, Maria got out of the car and adjusted the pan of chicken mole in her hand and looked all around her. She wanted to bring Frank his favorite dish since he hadn't been to the diner to get it. Then Gabriella stepped to her mom's side, “Mama, esta casa es hermosa. ¿Alguna vez has estado aquí antes?”

“Yes, it is beautiful; and no, I have never been here before.”

Maria was wondering what was going on, and just as she was about to speculate even further, the front door opened and Blanche appeared in a beautiful floral print skirt and a yellow ruffled silk blouse and on her feet were brown mules. She was beautiful, but her eyes were sad and Maria wondered if it had anything to do with why Frank had not been to the diner.

As the three was led into the den to talk, Gabriella asked, “señorita Blanche, may I use your bathroom please?”

“Yes, sweetheart, this way.”

After using the bathroom Gabriella was making her way back to the den the way Blanche had led her, but she must have taken a wrong turn because she was going down a long hall when she noticed a door slightly afar. She peeked in and saw what looked like a hospital bed with someone lying there moaning softly. Entering the room quietly, she walked closer to the bed, and looking around to see if anyone was coming, she took a close up look at the prone body lying there. She couldn't believe who it was, “Tio Frank,” she said in a low voice. “What's wrong, why are you here like this?”

Gabriella didn't think that Frank looked good, she could tell that he was sick, he looked so pale and wane. Then she noticed that he was waving her over to him. Hoarsely he spoke, “Maria, is that you? I need to say something to you.”

With tears spilling from her eyes she approached the bed, “Tio Frank, it's me, Gabriella. Don't you know me?”

“No baby, he doesn't.” Then Gabriella turned to look toward the open doorway, señorita Blanche and her parents were standing there.

Blanche went on to explain, “You see, your Uncle Frank has a brain tumor.”

~~~~~~

“Tio Frank, el tio Frank, pasèexamen de Inglécon una A.”

Frank had been helping Gabriella with her English and to hear that she passed her test with an made him proud, and that's all Gabriella wanted to do. She loved her Tio Frank just like he was her real uncle. He would come to her parents diner everyday for her de la madre chicken mole. According to Uncle Frank her mother made the best. He would say, “this is what keeps me gong pequeñ.”

He would always call her 'little one', and for the life of her she didn't know why it was that Frank spoke Spanish so well for a gringo. She tried not to use that word out of respect for Tio Frank, and if her mom heard her using it she was sure to get in trouble, because as her mother would say, “Frank is family not a gringo.”

Her mom even noticed that Frank spoke perfect Spanish and all she would say was that it was not their business to know how a man such as Frank knew their language so perfectly.

When her abuelo was in the hospital after being sick for so long, he would tell her stories of her Tio Frank. Of how he was their very own ángel custodio. She loved hearing the stories her grandfather would tell her. Especially the one of Tio Frank being their guardian angel, and how he protected her mama from the gringo, who Uncle Frank called friend. That was the only time that word was used in the house, whenever referring to James Lancaster. Grandfather wouldn't go into details except to say that there would be nothing to worry about when he no longer was around to take care of the family.

When Gabriella turned fourteen, Frank took her to visit the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California, because she expressed a desire to be an artist. When he found out about her aspirations to be an artist, she could see a longing in his eyes but she didn't know what could have caused that reaction. Exploring the museum, Gabriella eyes were wide open with astonishment at all the beautiful art work done by Hispanic artists. Following the map they got from the front desk, they turned the corner and went down the hall into a room dedicated to lesser known artists. As they were looking around, Frank suddenly stopped and stood directly in front of an oil painting of a two story bungalow with a red roof and yellow shutters

Frank looked at her and shook his head, “Nothing's wrong, cariño. Let's go.”

Before they left the room, Maria looked at the name on the painting, it was Jo Castillo. She wondered who the artist was and if her Tio Frank knew her. Gabriella made up her mind to look her up and see if she had any other paintings. If they didn't cost so much she would see if her family would help her buy one for him seeing that he had become so engrossed by the one hanging in the museum. When she told her mom about the painting and the artist's name, her mom reminded her the Castillo was Spanish for the name Castle, which was Frank's name.

~~~~~~

As Gabriella was standing in the doorway, she noticed Frank beckoning to her to come closer. “Maria, come closer. I have something to say. Maria!”

“Tio Frank, it's me, Gabriella. Don't you recognize?”

“No baby, he doesn't.” Gabriella turned toward the voice in the doorway and saw her parents and Blanche.

Blanche then turned toward Maria, “That's why I invited you here. Frank doesn't have long to live. He has a inoperable brain tumor. That's why he hasn’t been to the diner. He has something I think you and the family need to hear from him.” To Gabriella she said, “Don't feel bad that he doesn't remember you Gabriella, he still thinks of me as James' wife and keeps asking for him.”

Maria stepped closer to the bed and stood by Gabriella. “Frank, I brought you something, my chicken mole, made fresh this morning just for you.” Maria told him with tears forming in her eyes.

Frank smiled at her and tears were streaming from his eyes. “You made that dish for just as my mother did Maria,” and he was looking at Gabriella as he was talking. He only remembered Maria as a child, and Gabriella looked just like her mother when she was that age, and to him Maria made the best chicken mole just like his mother.

'My mother did two things great, and that was prepare chicken mole and paint. One day I went to the museum in California and I saw a painting of hers there. It made my heart proud to see her name Jo Castillo, on a picture she had painted and it was of our house where we used to live in Cuba. Gabriella realized that he was talking about the time they went to the Museum of Latin American Art, but he didn't remember her being with him. Gabriella couldn’t hold back the tears any longer and Maria and Luis put their arms around their daughter to comfort her. Then it what Frank said hit her, did Frank say Cuba?

That confirmed what Maria told Gabriella about the name Castillo and Castle. That was Frank's mother who painted that oil painting. After what Frank just said, she was right about that being their house, but why is Frank's name Castle and his mother's name Castillo?

Just when the question popped up in her mind she heard Frank talking. “Maria, I have to tell you something. My name is Francis Miguel Castillo and I’m from Cuba. When my family came here to America, mi padre wanted us to fit in so he forbid us to speak our native language in the house. My dad was one of the first hispanics university professors in Florida. He didn't want my mom to paint. He felt it was a waste of time so he would forbid her just as he forbid our language, but she always would, no matter what my dad didn't keep her from her passion.”

As Frank was talking his breathing was more and more labored and he had to keep taking deep breaths. He seemed to be really trying to explain everything. Blanche wanted him to rest, “No, I have to tell them about everything.”

Still looking at Gabriella, he continued talking. “Maria, when I first came into the diner and your dad had chicken mole on the menu, I had to try it because my mom would make that dish for us, it was her signature dish. When my mom could no longer take my dad's prohibitions, she left. I understood why but it hurt that I couldn't go with her, and that was the last time I had that dish, but when I tasted the chicken mole at the diner it was as if my mom had returned. That's why I had to have it everyday.

Maria, wiping her eyes said, “Frank, we have a surprise for you.”

When Frank looked at Maria, into her eyes, there was a recognition, “It's you isn't it? I’m sorry I didn't know you.”

Then he looked at Gabriella, “I'm sorry pequeño, I've been a little under the weather.”

Crying softly, “That's alright Tio Frank, Te amo tanto.”

“And I you dulce niña.”

Turning his attention back to Maria and Luis, he continued telling them what he had to say. “When your dad had the heart attack and I rode with him to the hospital, he told me that the diner was about to be taken from him, but I couldn't let that happen, so I bought it. That's why I would always tell you not to worry about the bills.” Frank looked over at Blanche and she immediately went to the top drawer of a ornate bureau in the corner of the bedroom. She pulled out a very important looking paper and handed it to Frank.

“This is the deed to the diner and the land surrounding it.” Then he handed it to Luis. He took Maria's hands and held them tight, I had to watch over you and your family after that incident with James. That day you became my family, you see it's all about the mole.

In another corner of the bedroom, right across from Frank's bed was a painting of a two story bungalow with a red roof and yellow shutters...

(This story is a first draft)