Closing Time

The tempered squawking of the baseball announcers was the only sound of life in the bar.  Grunting as he leaned across the counter to reach the far corner, the bartender glowered at the small figure hunched over the last stool.  "Hey.  Kid.  We’re closing.  Move along.“

The figure uncoiled, lengthening into a slender woman with a pixie cut.  She smacked a piece of white gum under her canines.  "Your sign’s still on,” she said with a jerk of her thumb over her bare shoulder.  The movement made her visible breasts quiver.

The bartender stopped mid-wipe and sighed.  "Right.  Okay.  Look, I’m turning off the sign.“  He crossed the distance behind the bar and flipped the switch.  Neon tubes hissed and died.  Hands to hips, the bar cloth dangling from his fingers, the bartender faced his last customer.  "We’re closed.”

“Excellent.”  The young woman swung off the stool, and with a thrill in his groin, the bartender realized she was not wearing pants.  Her heels ticked away the seconds as she moved to the door, bolted it, and slunk back towards him.

He suddenly found that his hands were awkward, no matter where he intended to rest them.  "Ma’am, I’ll h-h-h-have to ask you…“

"I’d prefer you give commands.”  She dropped to her knees on the rubber mat, her tongue lolling.  Like graceful divers, her hands disappeared into his pants and slid them off.  "So?  What’ll it be?“

"In your mouth,” he gasped, his hand moving without bidding to the back of her head.  Her hair was coarse, dyed too many times; he grasped a handful and pressed her nose into his crotch.  She accepted his length down her throat with a grateful gulp.

His eyes fell on the envelope, splashed with beer, resting where she had been sitting.  His name was on the back.  His fingers trembling with the effort of concentrating, he managed to extract the card.

Happy birthday, bud.  Have one on us.

It was signed by bar owner and his coworkers.

Stabilizing himself on the edge of the counter with his palms, he adopted a wider stance.  "Deeper, bitch,“ he said, and she went to work.

I try to see the potential loss of or damage to our stuff in our own home as a sort of thriller movie side quest

like the protagonist who tries really super hard to keep the car from getting damaged throughout the fiery chase scenes because that one old guy will get PISSED if there’s even a scratch

or the main character who is haunted by mischievous ghosts who just wanna take her hairbrush

…it helps

…sometimes

But in all seriousness, the news lady got me

joshuarobertlong:

thinking about it all. There are some kids now, the younger generation, the kids that are just now turning 13 or 14 or 15 or 16 or 17 or 18. They don’t know the thrill of just randomly going over to someone’s house, knocking on the door, seeing if they are home, being told they’re not, and then having to walk back home and figure out something else to do. It seems like a simple enough thing, something that isn’t that much of a deal, but it is. The news lady went on to say how kids don’t even have the lust for travel anymore. They can just look at pictures and videos of things around the world, they don’t see the point. When I was 18 and 19 I wanted to see every goddamn edge of the Earth, and within my abilities and finances, I saw pretty much every side of North America at least, which is what I’ll always know to be my home.

It’s too early to know if any of that actually means something, but I’m saying it does. Being rejected by an empty door is a part of life, it adds character to the person you were trying to see. It shows them they were worth the travel, worth the three block walk to their house. There is no value in a text message, a Facebook message, etc etc etc. Try it once. Don’t be another part of your generation that just turns into this inward mass who know longer knows how to turn the pages of an encyclopedia or ring a doorbell. Step away from the internet. Step into someone’s doorway.

I don’t agree that there’s no value in electronic communication, but I totally agree that a lot of the value of friendship comes from the effort exerted to make it happen.