AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Grayson
HERE I AM AGAIN, another Friday evening, at New Atlas Bar.
This job is what consumes my weekends, Friday evening through Sunday in the wee hours of the morning. I gave up on weekends out, chillin’ with the boys. It’s a convenient excuse, sorry I have to work, and they seem to understand. I have been a bartender here for three years, but I have lived in this town my whole life. Before that I worked in the mine. I learned really quick that I have a fear of being underground. I didn’t make it a week. That’s one of the main things young guys in this town do when they graduate and have no plans for college. Go work at the mine. It’s hard work, but it also pays extremely well. The money was hard to give up, but my sanity was worth it.
Columbus Falls is where I was born, where I was raised, my family is here, my friends are here, but here…hasn’t always felt like home. Yeah, growing up around my family was amazing.
Constantly having cousins to play with as a kid and aunt and uncles that would feed me anytime I dropped in. The friends I graduated with were the same friends I made in pre-school. They were like family as well.
A good friend of mine joined the military after high school, and he was gone before summer was over. It was like saying goodbye to a sibling. As soon as he was at his first base, I went to visit him. He got stationed in the Gulf Coast of Florida. Little
2
T. SPEAR
did I know how much I would fall in love with the ocean. The sound of the constant waves moving in, gulls flying overhead hoping you’d a French fry. Even getting in sand in places I really didn’t want sand, didn’t bother me. I could have lived on that beach.
I know people from this area say that same thing about the river, that it’s calming, the sound of the water moving over the smooth stones, but it’s different. Don’t get me wrong, I love and appreciate the beauty the river holds, but the ocean, it’s spectacular. There is a power behind it that the river can’t match.
My friend took me for surfing lessons one day and it was invigorating. The first time I stood up on that board and saw the ocean rushing beneath me, something changed for me. It’s nothing like floating the river, which is all I can really compare it to. I can’t wait to go back. Someday, when I pull my head out of my ass and figure out what is holding me back.
“Grayson” Gennie say from across the bar. She snaps her fingers in my face to get my attention. “You have been staring at that bobcat for 10 minutes. What’s with you lately? You alright?”
I look away from the stuffed bobcat in the corner, meet Gennie’s eyes, and shake my head. Remembering that I was drying glasses, and that my hand has been drying the inside of this one the whole time, I set it on the bar. Had I really spaced out that long.
“I don’t know Gennie.”
Gennie is the owner, her and her husband bought the bar five years ago. It’s one of the oldest bars in Montana.
I slap the towel over my shoulder. I put my hands on my face and scrub them down it to get me out of this funk.
WHEN YOU'RE READY
3
“Well, youneedto know. This is the fourth time in two weekends. And this weekend barely started.”
“I’m sorry Gennie. I’ll do better. It gets easier when we open, and I have people to tend to.”
“I understand. We all have shit we are working through, but we are going into the summer months and nights are going to pick up. Now, I know you can handle it, because you have every summer before this.”
“Yes, I can.”
“But, if this nonsense keeps happening, I am going to bring someone else on. Maybe the stress of being by yourself back here is making things worse.”
“I can handle it. No need.” and honestly, I don’t want to share tips. The summer months are the best months for tips. I have a nice goose egg sitting in the bank from tips. You know, for the fun I have with friends and family. Not.
“Alright. This is your last warning though.”
“Yes, ma’am” I nod my head, knowing I gotta figure out my brain before I lose the only job, I have ever been good at. Well, the only job I have had for more than a few months. I never worked during the school months and over summer break, I would lifeguard at our local pool. It should have dawned on me then that I had a thing for water.
“I’m going to head out. I’ll leave the front doors unlocked,” she says as she walks away to the entrance.
“Thanks, Gennie,” I call out to her, and she waves at me as she slips through the doors.
4
