“David,” trying to interrupt him but only ignoring me.
“David!”, I whisper yelled.
“What? Don’t you see I’m…”, then his sentence faded out when he saw what I was seeing. “Holy Hell. This just got interesting.”
“What is he doing here,” turning to look at David to get his full expression.
“I don’t know,” he said with a happy grin, “but he just saw us and is heading our way.”
Whipping around, I ended up tipping over and spilling my beer. “Shit!” After grabbing a pile of barnapkins to soak my spill I looked up and was staring into glacial blue eyes.
Fuck me.
six
Hop There To There
Charlie
Ican’t believe I just snuck out of the house.
I had never done this before. I didn’t know what had come over me? Okay, that’s a stupid question. I knew exactly what had come over me.
I’m so screwed. My dad is going to kill me.
And I didn’t even know where I was going. I mean, I knew where the bars were, roughly, having passed some of them walking to and from the work site and exploring the town when we got here. But I didn’t know which one they went to. And what if they went to the one they said was down the hill? I didn’t know where that one was at all.
After showering, eating dinner with dad in complete silence and impatiently waiting for him to go to his room, I was finally able to sneak out. It was a miracle the creaky steps and floorboards hadn’t given me away.
Leaving the Village, I headed to the closest bar, which was just on the other side of Virginia Avenue on Olympia Road. There wasn’t a name on the run down shack of a building that looked like the roof was about to cave in. Hoping they were here and that I wasn’t too late since it’s already a little past 7:00pm, I bravely opened the door and peeked inside. Wow. It’s practically empty here. As I was about to close the door and head to the next location, the bartender noticed me.
“Well, don’t just stand there with the door open. Come in,” turning around to place the glass he was wiping on the back counter with the others.
Stepping inside to be polite I said, “Sorry, I’m not staying. I was looking for someone. I just don’t know what bar he is at.”
“Jesus, you don’t look old enough to hang around with anyone that visits these places, let alone drink,” after the bartender got a better look at me. I know my cheeks immediately blushed, so I looked down.
As I started to turn away I heard, “Who are you looking for?”
“His name is–”, but I got cut off with the door banging open behind me so hard, the walls rattled. Startled, I turned around, and immediately knew this was the worst idea I have ever had in my life.
“Well, look who we have here.” It’s the most brutal voice. It grated my ear drums. And gave me the urge to run away like a stray cat. I might have stood up to him in the mine, but I had others around me to give me the encouragement I could feed off of.
“Were you looking for Richard?”, the bartender asked with a timid expression.
“Ha! Doubtful. He’s probably looking for that piss-ant, Jim,” he said, pushing past me, heading towards the bar with the other guy who was withhim last time. He was at least five inches shorter than Richard, but just as big boned. “Two beers, Harry.” Then he looked at me with a menacing grin, “or should we make it three?”
Before I could even think about it, a response flew out of my mouth. “I don’t associate with men that seem to think their dicks are bigger than the beer bottle they are holding,” I calmly stated.
Richard started to launch off the bar stool with a fist up, when a bat hit the bar top and the other guy jumped up in front of Richard.
“I’m leaving. Thank you, Harry,” as I turned and walked out the door.
Once outside, I looked in both directions and took a deep breath, trying to decide if I should just give up and go home when out of the alleyway a shadow appeared, making me suck in a startled breath. When Harry stepped into the light, I exhaled, relieved.
As I walked towards him, he lit a cigarette and said quietly, “Jim usually hangs out at Bigham Tavern over on Bigham Street, two blocks over,” pointing in the direction I needed to go. “I’m only telling you because I know he’s a good guy unlike the assholes inside.” I nodded a thanks and turned to head down the street so I could go in the correct direction when he put a hand on my shoulder, “Be careful. Obviously, you are already on Richard’s bad side, even though it’s easy to get on, but still. Watch your back, yeah.”
After searching my gaze, like he’s trying to read my thought process, he took his hand back, turned and went back down the alley blowing smoke as he disappeared to where I assume there was a back door to the bar he snuck out through.
