| Fear |
The man behind the bar said again, “So, you haven’t got enough money for a hotel.”
“What?” The man sitting at the bar said again.
“I said,” said the man behind the bar again, “So, you haven’t got enough money for a hotel.”
“Ah. I didn’t say I didn’t have enough money for a hotel.”
“Yes you did.”
“No I didn’t.”
This went on for a while I’m afraid. For the next hour, on and off, people came and went in the spectral hole-in-the-wall pub, asking for drinks and being served, asking for and being given change for the gaming machines. Even while serving, the man behind the bar would throw over his shoulder, in the direction of the man seated at the bar, “Yes you did.” And invariably, whether his glass was full or empty, the man seated at the bar would correct the man behind the bar with “No I didn’t.” Night fell before the man seated at the bar could remember to say, “I said I didn’t want to pay for a hotel and was afraid I might have to sleep on the streets if I couldn’t get through to this woman who’s got a room to rent.”
“To let.” The man behind the bar corrected.
“To rent.” The man seated at the bar insisted.
This went on for a while I’m afraid. The pub grub supper the pub served was served and even while the man seated at the bar and several other people seated at the bar ate the supper, the man seated at the bar insisted to the man behind the bar that to rent was correct and to let was incorrect.
“You said,” the man behind the bar said, “that you’d lost all your money and you were afraid you’d have to sleep rough if you couldn’t get through to this woman who’s got a room to let.”
“I said,” the man seated at the bar said, “that friends had let me down on a room and I was afraid I’d have to sleep on the streets if I couldn’t get through to this woman who’s got a room to rent.”
This, I’m afraid, gave rise to fort-da linguistic chaos.
“You said,” the man behind the bar said, “that you’d lost all your money and you were afraid you’d have to sleep rough if you couldn’t get through to this woman who’s got a room to let.”
“I said,” the man seated at the bar said, “that friends had let me down on a room and I was afraid I’d have to sleep on the streets if I couldn’t get through to this woman who’s got a room to rent.”
The Echoes, who came into the spectral hole-in-the-wall pub on alternate Saturdays came into the spectral hole-in-the-wall pub now to set up, as they did so somehow managing to be served drinks by the man behind the bar while the man seated at the bar assailed him, after a fashion, with raised voice and, after a fashion, was assailed with raised voice by the man behind the bar. For the three sets the Echoes played the man behind the bar said, “You said that you’d lost all your money and you were afraid you’d have to sleep rough if you couldn’t get through to this woman who’s got a room to let!”
And for arguably the same three sets the man seated at the bar said, “I said that friends had let me down on a room and I was afraid I’d have to sleep on the streets if I couldn’t get through to this woman who’s got a room to rent!”
It wasn’t until the spectral hole-in-the-wall pub was closing up that the man seated at the bar again remembered to say to the man behind the bar, “Look, you’ve got buddies or thugs or I don’t know what waiting outside. You’re going to attack me now that you know I won’t get through.”
The man behind the bar looked at the man seated at the bar and said again, “Look, you’ve got mates or thugs or I don’t know what waiting outside. You’re going to do me now that I know you won’t get through.”
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