“Joe, I thought you’d be a little happier to see me, for Heaven’s
sake,” Sam exclaimed as he approached the bar. He was dressed in the
gray suit he was buried in, naturally.
Joe stumbled backwards and fell over his own feet, knocking over
a half-full glass of beer.
“Goddammit!” thundered a weary voice from the kitchen.
Merle Early stomped through the partition and into his bar ready to take
names.
“Joe, for Christ’s sake, start drinkin’ your booze from a goddamn
bucket if you’re gonna…”
Merle’s tirade faded away once he laid eyes on Sam Taylor, who
was now sitting at the middlemost stool at his bar. Sam dangled his feet
from the barstool and spun it right to left and right again while Eddie
shook his head and Joe covered his mouth with his open palm.
“Hi Merle!” Sam bellowed. “Long time, no see, eh?”
Merle’s eyes widened as big as half dollars and he promptly
fainted. Eddie, Joe, and Sam crooned their heads over top of the bar to
see Merle lying prostrate in the swaying kitchen doors which had now
stopped swaying. Frank dashed behind the bar to see if Merle was alive
or dead. Mr. Leonetti let out an abhorrent snore, his jowls shuffling in
his slumber. The neon Budweiser clock hanging on the wall above the
bathroom struck 11:00 pm.
Sam shook his head. “I was only gonna ask ‘em for a drink,” he
said.
Joe’s hands darted to his abdomen and he bent over, babbling
something in disbelief as he made a beeline for the bathroom. Sam made
his way behind the bar and perused the many bottles of hard liquor that
Merle had in stock. He quickly found an unopened bottle of scotch with
a sticker that read 1969.
“Ahh, that’s a damn good year,” Sam stated as he popped open the
bottle, found a semi-clean glass and reached his hand into the ice bucket
for a dozen or so cubes. He began to pour himself a tall drink as awful
vomiting sounds echoed from the bathroom.
“Awful muggy out there tonight, eh gents?” the deceased man
observed.
Eddie took the initiative to talk to Sam, his good friend whose
coffin he had thrown a handful of dirt on six months before.
139