Fifteenth Friday Flash: Santos Returns

*Apologies that my #fridayflash is late this week. My laptop decided to die on me. Borrowing my brother's to post this. This is a follow up to Gorilla Pequeno it doesn't seem to have the same punch, but treating it as a bridge to a more exciting Santos tale I will be working on soon. (You know at the end of a movie where they sometimes have a little write up on what the characters are doing now. Think of it as one of those)


Life was hard for Santos, no matter how he explained his jaunt as a strip club performer his wife didn't believe him. He even got the night club owner to phone her, but she dismissed it, saying it was one of his friends or a hired actor. He soon realized she would find an excuse not to believe him no matter what he said, and it didn’t take him long to find out why; she had been having an affair with the flamboyant lion tamer.

Having had enough he unhooked their trailer home and took the truck; leaving the carnival for good. Not one to dwell on his misfortune he set out to find a new job. Being small of stature everyone was kind to him, but all said they weren't hiring or they had nothing that would suit his skills.

Just when he thought he would have to swallow his pride and return to stripping he got an unexpected phone call. It was a man named Winston T. Ford. He was a talent agent and he wanted to represent Santos. Unknown to Santos he had become an internet star. A video of him taken by a woman in the strip club had gone viral. It had over fifty million hits.

His first gig was to advertise for an eat healthy campaign. Santos jumped at the chance.

The commercial was an instant hit and within days he was a household name. Billboards with his image were everywhere. Youngsters worldwide were copying his jig. It became to be known as the Banana Dance. And whenever he was spotted in public he was asked to perform the dance. At first he was more than happy to oblige, but it soon got too much for him and restricted it to autographs when he had a chance.

Life was good until his wife filed for divorce, demanding half of his assets and future profits. It stressed Santos no end, but Winston soon got him calmed down and said he would handle it. And handle it he did. A ruthless divorce lawyer was hired and it didn't take her long to prove that Santos' wife had been having an affair. In the end his now ex-wife settled out of court for a vastly reduced maintenance plan. In addition in a separate case Santos was granted sole custody of his daughter after it was proved his ex-wife had an unstable lifestyle.

Life was all roses again, but for how long?