A suit makes the man

[ronfiction]

Lou milled about in the entry way of the Demarko house and cursed to himself yet again as he messed up his tie yet again. This time the tie was far too short and looked comical on him. Last time it was too long and the time before that the knot was all wrong. Lou gave the knot a frustrated look in a small mirror he had borrowed and tore the tie off and tossed it aside onto the bed where the rest of his suit lay.

"Damn knots, This is why Marc was the boy scout."

Lou said and let out an annoyed growl and stalked around the room, trying to calm himself down. After Hannah had given him a hard time about his clothing, he had made the claim that he would get himself a suit and take her out to dinner or something fancy. Lou looked out the window and could see the wreckage of shade grove in the distance. He had only ever owned one suit in his life, and it had gotten burnt up when shade grove burnt down.

A lot of folks gave Lou a hard time about his ripped up clothing; for the most part, it didn't bother him. He was in a rough line of work, and he counted fancy clothing for the fancy people of the city. Simple folk like himself kept to simple clothing. Whenever someone called him out for his ripped up clothing he played it off like a joke. He didn't want to make folks feel bad about how most of his possessions were lost in the fire. Most of the possessions were not valuable to anyone but him; a photo album from his parent's wedding, a stack of Christmas cards from his brother, things that most people wouldn't care about.

The tribe had taken him in an gave him a new family, and Lou counted himself lucky now, having something to make new memories with. One life burnt way, an other just starting.

"Let folks make fun of your clothing Kate. It doesn't matter in the larger picture."

Lou said to himself as his small pocket radio gave off a small crackle of static. The radio had been in his car during the fire and was one of his old possession that he still had. He had it on earlier trying to get the sox game but as usual it didn't get anything but static. He ignored the crackle from the radio and sighed again and looked down at the suit laid out on the bed.

Only one person's comment about his clothing had hit him, and that was Hannah's. All the pep talks he had given Kate those many years ago had helped strengthen his own resolve until Hannah had said something to him. It struck him in a place he didn't even know he had still. All the times the rest of the gang had busted his chops or cracked a joke about him the comments rolled off. But just like with Kate, there was one that stuck.

"I don't know if you'd be laughing or cursing right now Kate."

Lou said as the static crackled some more; which Lou continued to ignore. He sighed again and picked up the hanger that the suit jacket hung on and held it up. Lou had caved and in his bluster told Hannah he would do right by her, get dressed up and take her some place nice. Lou went to Adam Morsi and begged the man for a week straight to help him with his suit problem. Adam was mostly annoyed but when Lou changed a tire on his car, Adam resolved himself to pay it forward and bought Lou a suit.

Thankfully Adam had a sense of style and a bank account that had enough commas in it to help Lou out. Lou put the jacket down and picked up the tie again. He heaved a sigh and started to try to knot the tie again. With some struggle and a clear head; Lou managed to get the knot just right. He looked it over in the mirror and smiled to himself.

"Finally."

He said as the radio went silent again.