It wasn’t the restaurant that was on Vincent’s mind that day, it was Theresa and the war she was raging against him. "Maybe I should try to go and talk to her," he said quietly to Jack. Silence filled the room… "Or maybe I should just kill her…"

Vincent sat in the small upstairs office of Jack’s Chili Factory, his father’s restaurant located on the corner of Crenshaw and Exposition in South Central L.A. Jack’s had gone through many transitions over the years, yet the small office had remained the same. Dust and the dingy walls were highlighted by the lamp that sat on his desktop. Rodent feces lined the baseboards throughout the room. A small window opened to the back parking lot that now was home to broken down cars. The mildew smell was strong on that mid-Saturday afternoon in August. Jack Oliver, looking old and weary, stood in front of his boy wondering where he had gone wrong. Reflecting on Vincent’s childhood, he recalled his older son Barry often saying, "Vincent isn’t the little prince you think he is, you really need to take a good look at him." Nevertheless, Vincent had always been Jack’s pride until now.

Jack stared at his boy in disbelief. His son was almost fifty years old but he was still his youngest child. He knew his son was in pain and he couldn’t help him. As far as he was concerned, Theresa was a mean woman and deserved to die. "Well..." Jack responded fiercely, "you have to be very careful and ever so kind and polite on appearances; Don’t give that lady any idea that you want to hurt her, but when you put your hands on her, you better kill her Goddammit!"

Vincent’s constant vomiting had made him twenty pounds lighter. His face sagged from the weight loss; his skin was yellowing and clammy. His hair was falling out in patches. He was jittery and couldn’t sit still. His once boyish look instantly had taken on that of an old man. Vincent, defeated, slumped in the dirty brown office chair. He thought about Theresa. Of the three constant women in his life, he always believed that Theresa truly loved him most. Her love had always been limitless and unyielding. Yet Vincent had also known that she would be the one to destroy him. 

"I am going to kill her," he announced again to his dad in a simple matter-of-fact tone.

"Whatever you do, it better be done well!" Jack commanded.