Clerks: The Visit
********* If you have not seen Clerks III, please see it before you read my story. I don't want to be responsible for spoiling the movie for anyone.
This is dedicated to the Randal to my Dante. I miss you, Bubba.
A year had passed. Randal had been dreading this day. Actually he had been ignoring this day, as it approached on the calendar, but in the back of his mind it was still there. The night he showed the first person his movie. The night everything changed. The night Dante died. Randal woke up in his new house the money from the movie bought him. He got home late from LA last night but woke up early. He called Elias and told him he would be coming in later to work. He laughed. Here he was writing and directing movies and he still kept that damn Quick Stop running. Hr looked at a picture of the two of them behind the counter at the store on his nightstand.
"I bet you're laughing your ass off of me Up There, you fucking chud!"
Randal cleared his throat trying to choke back a couple of tears. He had a long day ahead of himself and had to get to it.
First, he had a check up for his heart with his doctor. The first couple of months he didn't take his condition as seriously as he should have, but since Dante died, he was doing much better with it. The doc told him his heart was doing great! She said in a way it was like he never had the heart attack at all. He wished she could've said that about Dante.
He drove by the Mooby's they worked at with Becky and Elias! He smiled when he thought about that night they got put in jail over that donkey show, but then got choked up again when he thought about the last time he was there. He had to pull over for a minute. Randal soon found himself driving around town, coming across all the different places that he and Dante hung out at or encountered. There was the funeral home where they went to Julie Dwyer's funeral, that amusement park when that Pickle Fucker came into Mooby's to mock them, but ultimately he ended up at the Quick Stop. He pulled into the parking lot. Jay and Silent Bob were standing outside their weed store! Jay greeted him loudly as usual.
"Yo! Wassup clerk! I thought you weren't coming in today!"
Silent Bob smiled and waved. Randal answered Jay.
"Yeah me too, but here I am."
"Yo man! Come on inside! We got something to show you!"
Randal followed the two stoners turned entrepreneurs inside their store. Bob was quiet as usual, but Jay was dancing and singing his usual nonsense.
"Ok Kurt Cobain, I don't have a lot of time guys. What is it?"
Jay pulls a joint out of us jacket.
"You brought me in here to show me one of your joints? Un-fucking-believeable!"
"No man! Its not just any joint! It's special!"
"How the fuck is it special?"
"Well, we're calling it the Dante!"
Randal was getting pissed! They named one of their fucking joints after Dante and were going to sell it for their own profits!
"You two have got to be two of the biggest fucking assholes I've ever fucking known! You know what the fuck today is and how bad it is for all of us and you're going to call that shit Dante, use his name to make a fucking buck off of Unbelievable!"
"Relax you cocksmoker! We're not going to make a profit! Its going to charity!"
"What?"
"Its going to charity! Tell him about it Silent Bob!"
"Yeah. I know someone who works for the American Heart Association and we struck a deal with them. Basically, all the money we make off of selling these will be donated to the AHA in Dante's name.
Randal got choked up again, but couldn't hold back the tears any longer. He hugged Jay and Bob and apologized.
"Holy fuck guys! I'm sorry! That's fucking awesome!"
Surprised by the clerk's emotional response Jay replied.
"Yo man! Get the fuck off me!"
Randal continued crying as they tried to get out of his embrace.
Randal left the weed shop and proceeded to his own store. His phone dinged. It was a text message. It read:
"Hey babe. Had a great time in LA Hope to see you later today."
Randal smiled at the two heart emojis that ended the text. He walked inside the Quick Stop. Elias was training the new guy but stopped when he saw Randal.
"Randal! I thought you weren't coming in until later."
"I'm not. Just had to pop in for a minute."
"Well ok this is John. He's our n-"
Randal interrupted Elias.
"Don't care! Just make sure he can do the job!"
Randal looked across the store and could almost swear he saw Dante looking back at him, throwing his hands in the air and mouthing "What the fuck man!" at him. He turned around and looked at his new employee and said.
"I'm sorry man. Just busting Elias' balls! Welcome to the Quick Stop! Abandon all hope ye who enters here!"
Randal smiled and left the store. Elias looked at John and explains.
"I told you he's a character! Just don't tell him The Lord of the Rings is better than Star Wars and you'll get along great!"
Randal had one more stop to make and it was the one he was really dreading: the cemetery. He parked the car. He grabbed the black backpack in the passenger seat and walked to Dante's gravesite. He hadn't been back since the funeral. He had never been so nervous or emotional in his life. A smile broke across his face when he saw Dante's headstone. He had a picture of the Millennium Falcon engraved on it in honor of calling Dante his Han Solo. He had to admit, who ever drew it captured it perfectly. Dante took a knee in front of the headstone.
"Hey man. How's it going? Sorry I've not been up here in a while. I uh- I've been busy. Shit, I can't lie to you. I've been avpiding coming back here and you know it. I just miss you man."
Randal got choked up again. He cleared his throat and continued.
"So how are things Up There? I guess you and Becks are tearing it up again, ruining every prep station in every Mooby's this side of Vahalla no doubt! Hey! I just thought of something. Remember when you told me you had a dream that she told you about all the sex she was having Up There and with who? I gotta ask man! You, her, and Caitlin Bree? Yes or no?!"
Randal laughed
"God I wish you were here to answer that! If you were here you'd be telling me to stop or cut it out before yelling: "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" So I've got some news. I got to ask a favor. You remember Veronica right? Of course you do. She was your ex who sucked thirty-seven dicks and she rocked your world right before you died."
Randal looked over at Becky's headstone.
"Sorry Becks. Anyhow, we've kind of gotten close since the funeral and the last few months we've kind of gotten serious and I won't go into details but-"
Randal whispered.
"Ass to mouth!"
He winked and gave a thumbs up.
"I'm just kidding! Anyhow, I'm going to ask her to marry me and I wanted to ask your permission. Look man like I said we've gotten really close and her daughter and I get along great and I don't think I would have gotten past you dying without her, and I Ithink….. No I love her! I know you probably don't have a way to give your blessing but if you can. Anyway tell Becks hi and Caitlin too wink, wink and tell little Grace that Uncle Randal loves her and can't wait to meet her one day so I can tell her all about how great her old man is! Oh I almost forgot!"
Randal reached into the bag and pulls out an Oscars award trophy.
"So last night I got to go to the Academy Awards in LA and we cleaned up man! Best Director, Best Writer, Best Cinematography, Best Picture, and you my friend got Best Actor! You beat Cruise, Affleck, Damon, you beat them all buddy!" So this is yours buddy!"
Randal put the Oscar on Dante's grave then quickly removed it.
"I'll bring this back when I can get it mounted on your headstone buddy! This movie writing career is working out pretty good! I think for my next flick I'm going to do one about the mall back in the nineties! Jay and Bob got a couple of good ideas too. Jay claims they saved the world from a demon and two renegade angels or some shit and Bob keeps going on about some chick named Amy and I think I can sprinkle a little magic on that and come up with something people might watch. And get this! The guys behind Ranger Danger are calling me! How fucking cool is that?" Anyhow man I'll let you go. Just want to say I love you and really miss you!"
An SUV pulled up. Veronica got out of it.
"Hey Graves! You're late!"
Randal looked at Veronica.
"Be right there!"
He turned back to Dante's headstone.
"I gotta go buddy."
A brisk breeze brushed by Randal.
"Hey why don't you Randal outta here."
Randal looked back at the headstone and saw Dante standing beside of it. He replied.
"No man. No."
Dante replied back.
"Come on. Here comes Randal. He's a Beserker!"
Randal did the Randal walk away from Dante towards Veronica. She asked.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
"Nothing. Just something between me and him."
Randal put his arm around Veronica amd kissed her. He turned around to look at Dante's grave one last time before leaving. Dante was still standing there but was joined by Becky and their child Grace. The two best friends shared a knowing smile with each other. Randal knew he had Dante's blessing to marry Veronica. As he started to walk away, he noticed Caitlin Bree appear on the other side of Dante. Randal laughed as he got in the SUV.