Jan 3rd, 2001

Tried to cross the street today. I found myself in one of those strip mall parking lots. A real maze of monstrocity- jagged cut corners and rows of yellow lines like an Aztec tapestry. Symbols without meanings. Storefronts were generic. You find the same ones every five blocks: NAILS, SALON, LIQUORMART, HUGS 4 SALE, CELLULAR, YOUR BANK, whatever. Caddy corner to this lifeless block was a bar 'CORNER BAR, a mirage. A dying character. I hopped a line of handicapped parking spaces and entered.

Inside it was crowded. All sorts of 'walks' in there. No one speaking to no one. Not solemn, not angry, just a dull buzz bore. At the bar I ordered a whiskey sour and gave the place a good eyeballing. The place seemed quite alive for no one talking to no one. The bartender was a round man with black polo and slacks ' always smiling ' a thick bowling ball. I began to run up a tab. Keeping up with the code I spoke to no one.
Decades later I had ran out of cigarettes. Finding no machine nearby, I bent the code ' just a little.
'Hey buddy, got a smoke I could bum for the road?'�
The man next to me was as lifeless as the scenery and he spoke in a speak n spell drawl.
'One for the road? You haven't been lost for long have ya.'�
'Lost? No, I just live down the street.'�
'Sure we all do'�you take a left then a right and where are you?'�
He didn't let me answer.
'Yes, back here..where you started. Believe me. I've been lost for ten yeeeaaars- just stepped out for groceries, old lady still waitin for me to come home and let out the cats.'�
He snorted and slid half a pack of KOOLS across the bar to me.
'For the road,'� he spat again.'� Might as well stay. Bob here puts on the news in 'bout an hour'�sad,sad, stuff. Welcome to stay. But hell, if you make it out of here could you tell my wife I love her.'�
I nodded, accepting my fate with a slow draw.
'Her name is Juanice.'�
There would be forty five more minutes of this until good 'ol Bob put the news on.
I've grown to look forward to the simplest of things.

Want to comment on this Short Stories? Sign up to Edit Red and you will be able to comment on Short Stories and get access to: Upload your own stories and poems, get readers and their feedback, promote your work...