THE STORY SO FAR

THE STORY SO FAR

Back and back and back and back. Choice is seldom what it seems, and even when it is, you will be changed in ways no one can foresee. Here’s a story for you: A woman was sitting in a bar and a man came up and said…

She had not been drinking for that long; not in this bar on this block. Not tonight. But she hadn’t yet been sober in this town which had so many bars and so many churches, and she had reached the end. This would be the last one. The last pine paneled smoke-stained bar, last cold long walk alone to that small and stinking room, last collapse to sleep with no kind dreams.
Tomorrow would be different. She would find the job. Call her family and let them know the worst. Look up a friend or two and start life. For now, though, the music from the other room was warm and smoky and the light was gentle and kind to the odd mix of players in the room. College types slumming for the music, white collar city workers who never made it home after happy hour, plaid shirts, a prowling sweet young thing.
The tall redhead had left the spotlight of the pool table for her own escort in the dark corner booth across the room.