The evening light fitlered through the dust. Few people were in the bar. Nobody caught Red's attention. They were all the usual crowd. Everybody except for one.
The man at the bar. Nursing a scotch. Hunched over. Deep in thought. Red knew the look of a man in rumination. He'd been there before.
The man felt out of place. He was dressed like a normal man from
Westcity
. But something of his demenaor felt off. Like he was an actor. A bad actor who was obviously from where else pretending to be a midwesterner. Oh well, Red thought, to each their own.
It'd been about an hour since the man ordered that scotch. Hadn't said a word after getting it. Red had half expected the guy to pull his ear. But his lips remained closed. Red took care of dishes and refilling bottles on the shelves while the man sat there barely sipping.
Then all the sudden in one go the scotch was thrown back. "Another one." the man said. Red poured another.
The man threw back half the scotch this time in one go. Sat the glass down and said, "nice town here."
"Yeah. It's nice. You not from around here?"
"Nah. First time." he looked at this glass and shook his head. "It's pretty nice."
"Yeah. I like it. It's got character."
"Grow up here?"
"Nah came here for college."
The man smiled and looked around at the dark bar with evening light filtering in through slits of the blinds.
"College huh?"
"Yeah. Didn't pan out." Red shrugged with his palms facing up.
"Similar story here," the man said and threw back the drink. Red refilled it without waiting for the man to ask. "I just lost my job. Maybe lost my business."
"That sucks, man."
"Yeah. Some shit I couldn't control." the man began coughing. The coughing didn't stop for awhile. Red worried that he'd soon see blood on his bartop.
"You okay, sir?"
The man held out his hand to signal that he was okay. Kept coughing. It eventually stopped. Red noticed that the man was gripping at his belly like he was wounded bad there.