Reconnaissance: Casey's Tavern Monday Night
"Leon is gone and I don't know who I am supposed to be when he is not around...." A TWO-MINUTE story
Bruce stood outside of Casey’s Tavern in front of the buzzing neon sign – the sign that says, “All You Need is Love”. Right, he thought, as if that were breaking news… Casey’s was their old hangout, the place where he and Leon had first hooked up. He still dropped in there two or three nights a week, hoping, and sometimes hoping not, to find him.
He sat at the bar, ordered a beer, and slid over a bowl of peanuts. It was usually busy on a Monday night, noisy. The Dolphins and Cowboys game was on ESPN and there were monumentally obnoxious shouts and loud laughter from a couple of tables in the corner. Bruce wasn’t in the mood. He drained his glass and was just about ready to go home when he heard a familiar voice behind him.
“Bruce … ? Hey!”
He turned to see a familiar face. Leon’s brother. He didn’t say anything, didn’t know what to say. It felt awkward.
“You alone? Can I sit here?”
Bruce stared at him. “Yeah, sure … sit down. ”
“So… how you doing? Where’s Leon?”
“Leon? I haven’t seen him. He left me a couple of weeks ago.”
“I thought you two were really tight. Why’d he leave?”
“Fuck if I know. Doesn’t matter. I wish I’d never met him. You want a beer? Hey, Hank — a couple of Coronas down here when you get a minute. Thanks.”
“You were together for … what? … over a year?”
“Yeah, almost two.”
“So what happened?”
“I am not really sure, to tell you the truth. It’s tough. Thing is, I don’t know who I am supposed to be when Leon’s not around. Life without Leon, you know, it’s just life without Leon. I’ve been stumbling around like a fucking zombie.”
“You think he might come back?”
Bruce put his elbows on the bar, rested his head in his hands. “Who knows? I doubt it. I’ve been thinking, though. There are so many different kinds of connections, and ours was sort of weird. Fuck, it was definitely weird. But, you know, I thought it was worth working on. I was really trying to get it right.”
There was a sudden outburst of cheering and hooting as the Dolphins scored again. The woman next to him knocked over her margarita and apologized as it dribbled off the bar onto Bruce’s jeans. The two men sipped at their beers, neither trying to speak until the roar had subsided.
“If he did come around, do you think you’d want to see him?”
Bruce slowly looked up. “Why’re you asking? You know something I don’t know?”
“Maybe.”
“Yeah. I’d want to see him. Hell, yes. Definitely.”
Okay, good then, because he is right outside. Sent me in to see if he’d be welcome.
A twist, and then a twist!
I got a little chill at the end there.