Negroni
Chris was cleaning glasses while last clients were leaving. After he made sure every single one of them is sparkling he nodded in pride, he went to the locker in the backroom and took out a single broom, he sighed and went back to the main room in order to was the floor.
He didn’t like this part of his job, but he had to do it nevertheless, at least it always filled him with pride when he finished cleaning his bar.
“Hey Chris, make sure to close everything after you leave, I left keys in the usual place!”
“Sure boss!”
Mr. Freckman smiled and walked outside leaving Chris alone to finish his chores, Chris was working as a bartender for 5 years now, he started working as soon as he finished high school.
And he never regretted it, it was rather boring at first, only cleaning glasses after main bartender and pouring beer, but soon owner of the place, Mr. Freckman gave him a chance to show his skills as the bartender, and he used it properly.
Since he didn’t have any assistant he had to clear glasses himself, he also washed the floor each Monday, he had to stay longer than anyone else but he actually liked that a little bit, after he was left alone with his thoughts he was always thinking about drinks, what kind of cocktails will he prepare tomorrow? What recipes will he learn? Which ultimately led to always remembering his dream, creating a drink that everyone will love and enjoy, a cocktail that will shake taste buds of anyone who will taste it.
Chris sighed thinking about his future, he always wanted to be bartender, not only because he liked mixing, no this job was so much more than that.
He always enjoyed meeting new people, talking with them, mostly about their problems, many persons were coming to his bar to simply talk while enjoying some drink, some of them were being cheated on by their partners, some came after losing a job, he even once listened to devastated old lady about her recently deceased cat.
Even though he was pretty young, he considered himself quite mature, probably because of meeting so many older people each day and listening to them, he also moved out of his parents house right after getting this job.
After he finished cleaning he walked to his boss office and took the keys from the second shelf of the desk, after making sure he closed everything, he looked at the sing saying “Eden Garden.”, smiling wildly he started walking towards his home.
He had driver license, and an old but usable car, but he always walked to his work place on foot, it wasn’t so far away, about 25 minutes of walking, and in the meantime he had time to think about many things while enjoying cool air and some relaxing sights when he walked past the graveyard.
He always finished his job at 1:00 a.m., since he had to clean the floor it was 1:23 now and like always graveyard at this time was both scary and exciting sight.
Hundreds of small different colored candles illuminating dark night, line of horizon working as a border between their light, and light of full moon along with night stars.
But this night something else caught his eye, small movement in the back of the graveyard, five figure were sitting on the graves chatting about something, Chris knew he should better get away from there as quickly as possible, but curiosity won.
He walked up close enough to listen to them, but not close enough for them to see him.
“Are you sure we won’t be seen here? I really don’t want this to come out.”
“Don’t shit yourself kid, what are you scared that your mummy will find out?”
“Well no but…”
“Then shut up, Jenny did you bring syringe?”
‘Syringe?’ Chris gasped softly when he realized what was happening in front of him, 5 teenagers, all of them probably still going to high school who were about to drug themselves.
“You guys heard that?”
“That was probably some rat, don’t be a pussy Jeremy.”
He decided to risk a peek, he slowly moved his head above the grave and looked.
3 of them were boys, 2 of them were definitely still in high school, maybe even younger, both were blond with long bangs covering their eyes, he couldn’t see what were they wearing, the 3rd one looked older but he still was teenager for sure, he had short black hair, and some kind of tattoo on his neck.
One of the girls who was right now pulling out the syringe out of her bag had long dark hair, he wasn’t sure because of the lack of light, but she seemed to have both ears pierced. Second one had long blond hair, he couldn’t see much more but to his surprise he clearly could see that her eyes were beautiful shade of green.
He didn’t want to risk any longer, slowly moving away he didn’t saw small twig on the ground.
*CRACK*
“The fuck was that?!” Oldest looking from the group stood up and started looking around, Chris didn’t waste any minute as he started running as if his life depended on it.
“I told you John that this wasn’t a good idea.”
“For the last time Jeremy shut your fucking mouth.”
“Hey John, as far as this little bitch pisses me off as well, I think we should leave before this *Rat* of yours will call cops.”
“*Sigh* I guess you are right Jenny, take syringe and heroine and let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Chris finally stopped, panting heavily he curled up leaning against wall of someone’s house.
He stood there for few moments trying to catch his breath and thought about what he just saw.
He considered calling police but they were probably already far away from the graveyard, he decided to think about it later and started walking back towards his house, which was only few minutes away.
He walked inside and sighed, he made sure he closed the door in case they followed him, and went to his toilet, he still didn’t know what to think about that, his head was a total chaos, many different thoughts swimming without any control in his mind. He took a shower and brushed his teeth, then he went to his small kitchen and from one of the shelves he pulled out sachet of green coffee, he put in into previously boiled water and sat down in front of TV.
It took him about 20 minutes of drinking it and watching some comedies on “ComedyCentral” before he managed to more or less forget about those guys.
He turned off everything and went to sleep.
Much to his dislike he was woken up by rays of light shining through his window, it was only 8:32 a.m. and his shift started at 4 p.m.
Sighing he stood up and yawned, this was the part of the day he hated the most, morning activities.
After he ate breakfast and taking a shower he put on blue plain T-Shirt and black jeans.
He walked outside, looking at the watch he saw it was still only 8:59 a.m.
‘What should I do now? Huh, maybe they need some help at the bar.’
Chris smiled and nodded to no one, he stretched out and went to his workplace.
“Her Chris, quite early today.”
“Huh, tell me about it, I forgot to close the blinds.”
After walking inside Chris was immediately greeted by Mr. Freckman, two of them were good friends ever since they first met, even though Freckman was 20 years older than him, they understood each other perfectly.
“Actually Chris, that’s a good thing.”
Chris looked at him with quizzical expression.
“It is?”
“Yeah, you see our bartender that usually works at the daytime got ill, I was taking his place for now, but since you were woken up how about it?”
Chris once thought about working all day, but it was too tiring on the long terms, however earning some more money and staying in the bar all day and night once in a while doesn’t sound that bad.
“Sure.”
“Great, go change your clothes.”
Chris smiled and went to the backroom, he was greeted by other workers, cooks, Ms. Whitley the cleaner, and waiters.
He changed into his work suit, which consisted of black jeans, similar to his but with only two pockets, plain white shirt and black vest. He liked this outfit, it made him feel more professional.
He walked back to the main room and took his place as bartender, ready to take orders.
Since it was daytime there was much less activity in the bar, he didn’t mind and started to check on the alcohols, if they were missing something he was to tell Mr. Freckman about it immediately, that was also one of his duties.
He finally heard quiet bell meaning someone opened the doors.
He turned away from alcohols smiling warmly and prepared himself to serve the first client of the day.
“Hello sir, what can I do for you today.”
“Howdy, Ah’m not sure actually.”
Chris smirked.
“Of course, would you like something sweet or perhaps something more dry?”
Chris while talking started to examine him, he was a very well built man, he didn’t look too old, probably his age was somewhere near Chris, he had unkempt, short, blond hair and green eyes, he also had few freckles on his face.
He was wearing red jacket over plain white T-Shirt and blue jeans on his legs.
“Ah am not certain, Ah haven’t even ate any breakfast yet.” Chris finally heard southern accent in his voice, something he found rather odd.
“Sir, if you are going to eat something soon, I suggest Negroni, it is an apéritif drink.”
He sighed and nodded, Chris started preparing his drink and he knew what the expression he was wearing meant, this guy had some problem.
After serving his drink Chris passed it to his customer and asked.
“Excuse me sir, but it seems something is bothering you, maybe I could help somehow?”
“What it is so obvious?”
Chris nodded slightly earning another sigh from his client.
“It’s about my sister, she’s in the third class of high school and recently she started hanging out with some delinquents, Ah’m afraid she might do something she will regret.”
Chris nodded.
“Well sir, if you want to talk about it I’m listening.”
“Yeah why not, and I’m not “Sir”, name’s Big Mac.”
“I’m Chris, nice to meet you.”
They both smiled.
“So what was that about your sister?”
“Let me start from the beginning.”
Chapter 2 - Meeting the Apple.
Chapter 2
Meeting the Apple.
“So ya see, my sister always was a hard working girl, she helped us on the farm alot and still managed to have good grades throughout the middle school.”
“Go on.” Chris added while polishing his glasses
“That was until high school, her grades were slowly getting worse till the point where she almost fail her second year.”
Chris nodded.
“We don’t care so much about those grades, although our parents wanted Applejack to live the way she wanted to, she still decided to work on the farm.” Big Mac said with a sense of pride in his voice, while Chris made a mental note that his sister’s name is Applejack, he found it rather weird, but also kind of interesting.
“So we ignored the fact, but Ah’m regretting it now, she recently started to act weird. Usually she was a really kind girl, she would always listen to Granny Smith, or help with my work if I asked her to, but now when someone asks her to do something…” Big Mac sighed and frowned, he took few sips of his drink and sighed again.
“She just gets angry and leave the house to go god knows where.”
“Sounds pretty seriously, so you think she started hanging out with “wrong crowd”?” He said making quotation marks with his fingers in air.
“Eeyup.”
Chris put down the glass he was working on and took another one to polish.
“Problem seems serious but I think the solution might be easier than you think, did you try talking with her?”
“Of course Ah did, but she won’t listen to anything I want to say.” He said frowning again while also finishing his drink.
“Does she have any friends? I mean like really good friends, maybe even best friends.” He said smiling.
“She does actually, Ah don’t know if she was hanging out with them lately, but she had six great friends that might be called her best friends.”
“So perhaps ask them to help? Maybe they will figure something out.”
Big Mac suddenly smiled and mentally face palmed himself, why didn’t he think of that by himself?
“Thanks a lot partner, that is a great idea.” He said with a smile.
“I’m glad I helped.”
“So how much for a drink?”
“11 dollars.”
Big Mac opened his wallet and put 20 dollars on the counter.
“Keep the change.” He said and stood up.
“Thank you and have a nice day.”
‘Another satisfied customer I suppose.’ Chris said with a smile on his face and continued his work, soon new customers started to come and order drinks, occasionally doing some small talk with him.
Rest of the day went by without anyone asking him for an advice, after whole day of working he closed the bar and walked back home, this time he kept himself straight on the road away from graveyard and other places like that.
He walked inside and decided to play few games on his computer, after that he turned on his TV and watched some episodes of “How I met your mother” on ComedyCentral, after that he simply washed himself and went to bed, soon enough he swam away into the land of dreams.
Chris woke up, it was 1:12 p.m.
‘Now that’s more like it.’ He stood up and took some time to wash himself and make few sandwiches for breakfast.
It was 2:01 p.m. as he decided to go and look around the town.
He walked outside making sure he closed door behind him.
After some walking around without any destination in general he got himself a caramelized apple, he sat down on the bench in small park, after consuming his snack he looked at the time, it was still only 2:24 p.m. he suddenly felt thirsty so he stood up and went towards the nearest grocery shop.
On his was he constantly felt like someone is following him, but he shrugged it off.
He walked inside and got himself small Pepsi can, after leaving the store and taking few sips of his drink he walked down the street, suddenly he felt someone pulling his hand with force and quickly dragging him into the dark alley. Then he felt a sensation he never wanted to feel.
A knife near his throat.
“Whoa whoa, hold down your horses, what…”
“Shut up!” Chris was cut off by his attacker whose voice was surprisingly feminine.
‘A girl?’ Chris thought surprised.
“Listen, let’s calm down and…”
“Ah told you to shut up!” She hold knife closer to his throat, also this time he caught some southern accent in her voice.
“What do you want? Money?” He asked nervously.
Girl nodded, after few seconds she face palmed in her mind forgetting that he can’t see her.
“Y-Yes ex-exactly!” She muttered, he finally realized something, she was as nervous as he was, maybe even more by the way she spoke, he might find a way out of this.
“Ok listen to me, maybe we can talk, you will lower this knife of yours and I promise I won’t call cops.” He said with as much calmness in his voice as he could muster.
“Ah-ah….” He felt knife slowly lowering and then he heard something he quite didn’t except.
She was quietly crying.
He slowly lifted his right hand and when it was close enough he caught her hand which was holding knife and quickly freed himself. He jumped few steps away from her and finally looked at her, she had long blond hair combed with red hairband at the end, she was wearing orange paned T-Shirt and jeans, on top of her head was a brown Stetson hat, he also looked into her eyes, they were a beautiful shade of green, some small tears trying to leave them.
Although his brain was saying to run away as fast as possible, something inside him forbid him from doing that, he examined her more carefully, he knew people like her, they visibly had a problem which was too hard to handle for them alone, but they didn’t want to admit it. But he never refused to help them.
Never.
“Whoa, let’s slow down, now, we can talk, but first how about putting this knife down?” He said trying to smile warmly.
After few moments of looking at him she dropped her knife and soon after that collapsed on her knees crying.
“Ah-Ah’m sorry.”
Now he actually felt guilty a bit, even though it was her who attacked him few moments ago.
He walked up to her and kneeled down to her eye level.
“Why did you do that? From what I see you aren’t someone who would do something like this?”
She sighed trying to stop her crying.
“J-John told me that if Ah won’t do it, he-he would…”
“Would what?”
She shivered visibly, more tears forming in her eyes, she then stood up in a second and quickly ran away, Chris tried to stop her but to no avail.
He stood up and tried to process what just happened, suddenly something caught his eye, yellow school bag which lie down near the wall of the alley.
He opened it and found few school books and notebooks, finally he found something more interesting, his attacker ID.
He looked and it and his eye went wide after learning the name of the would-be robber.
‘Applejack? Wasn’t that how Big Mac’s sister was called?’
He put ID back into the bag where he found it and took it up from the ground.
He looked at the time, it was 2:36 p.m. his shift would start in hour and a half, he took his way home hoping that some comedies would calm him down like they always do.
On his way home he couldn’t stop thinking about that situation, and then he decided to find out more about it later.
He didn’t know why he felt so concerned about Applejack, was it his helping instinct? Or maybe something else, he didn’t care, the feeling that mostly overtook him right now was hunger of curiosity.
And he was going to satisfy it.
