Part reminder that I have moved to the new site here, part flash fiction, I posted this over at sceadugenga this morning. I’m reposting the flash fiction section here in case you have already changed your followed site to this one and removed the old site. If you read it at the old site, you won’t find much of anything new here unless I end up mucking about and start playing editor. I hadn’t intended to write flash fiction when I started the post at the old site, but that’s how it ended up.
If you haven’t already noticed, the lights have gone up and the bartender is calling “last call” to make you get the message, as if the ambiance change was not indication enough.
“Last call! Last call!”
Someone nudges you and you look down at the resident drunk, Louie. “Hey man, can you buy me a drink, I’ll pay you back nex–“
“Last call!”
You don’t listen to Louie; nobody ever does because he never remembers that he had promised to pay you back. So you shrug into your denim jacket to ward off the spring chill that creeps back every evening after nightfall at the end of March. The end of April will be another story, with its promise of summer, but now it is March and those winds still blow cold.
“Last call!”
Yeah yeah yeah, you mutter under your breath, Last call. Meanwhile, Louie tries to bum a whiskey from someone still lingering at the bar. They don’t even pretend to hear he pleas.
You shoulder open the heavy steel door and slip into the night, a cigarette already at your lips and the smell of lighter fluid creeping into your nostrils as you spin the wheel of your Zippo, have it catch fire, your own personal campfire held in your hands as you light your cigarette. You catch a glimpse in the still open door of one of the wait staff… Jessica, you think. She’s new, and you think that’s her name… starts putting the bar stools on the empty tables while Monika turns off the neon signs selling Miller and Bud Lite.
And off into the night you go, unsurprised to see flurries dancing in the streetlights as you make your way out to your car.
4 responses to “Repost from sceadugenga.com”
I love this–it sets the mood perfectly for leaving the old behind and embracing the new.
Thank you!
It’s been a long while since I’ve been part of a last call at a bar, but in some ways that’s kind of how moving sites feels this time around. I’m glad I managed to capture the feel for you. 🐦⬛
Deja-vu!!!
Blink and you might think it was only a dream.