All Kinds

Yea, we get all kinds in here.

See the blonde woman at the end of the bar? The one with too much makeup? Her husband ran off with a girl half his age a few years ago. Now poor old Beth comes in almost every night.

That fella at the end? He's been coming here since he got laid off at the china mines. I see them all. Some catch my eye more than others.

There was one a few years back. Dark headed young fella. He started coming in one night and was back every few days. He didn't talk much. Would come in; drink all quiet like or if old man Tolbert was here they would play chess most of the night.

I never saw him around town, just in here the odd night or so. He would stay, play a game of chess, have a drink or two and then someone would come for him.

Yea that was why I started paying attention to him, someone would come through the door and I almost always knew they were looking for him. It was different folks most nights, and to tell you the truth, a different kind of folks. They would look around, spot him and go fetch him.

Usually they would speak to him before they touched him, like he was jumpy or something. I figured he was a veteran of some sort, course he was awfully young looking, but you can't ever tell.

They would help him up and maybe put an arm around him to steady him if he had had a pint or two too many. And then they would leave with him. He always looked real sad.

Some of the women around here tried to side up to him. He was a good looking enough fella. He was polite to them, but they got the idea he wanted to be left alone.

One night a man came in with his girl, it was the Roberts fella that runs the car shop down the block. He's got this long blonde hair, always looks a little like a girl to me, but I know the styles are different now than how they used to be.

Well anyway, this dark haired fella saw him from the back after the came in and sat at the bar. He watched him for a while and then walked up to him and started touching his hair and said a name real quiet like. I could have sworn he said a real odd sounding name, but I couldn't be sure, he was whispering.

Anyway, Roberts turned and pulled away, course I don't blame him. Some strange bloke starts petting your hair in a pub, well you know. The dark haired fella looked at him a minute and his face kind of crashed down then he said you aren't him. And then he went and sat back down. We all knew what side of the sheets he was from then, course that don't matter none to me, everybody deserves someone to keep em warm at night.

It did stop the ladies around here from trying to snuggle up to him though.

One night one of the folks that came for him was this girl. She had been here a time or two to fetch him, brown haired girl. Not real pretty, but a nice smile.

She got him by the arm and was leading him out when he stopped and said something to her loud enough for us around to hear. He stopped and kind of backed away from her and asked her if they had found him yet.

She hung her head and shook it. No she said. Just that. No.

His shoulders slumped and his eyes got all red. He said he didn't want to go back, just leave him there. She told him she had to take him back, everyone worried.

He just kept backing up and shaking his head. He said to her that someone had to know something; someone had to have known where they took him. It was supposed to be over, why hadn't he come back. He sounded like he was pleading with her to help him understand, like his heart was breaking. She was looking around at us like she really didn't want to have this conversation here and she was trying to take his arm. He got angry and pulled his arm away, he started yelling that she didn't care, that she had never trusted him and didn't want them together. He yelled that they probably weren't even really looking for him. She looked like he had slapped her, she was trying to talk real low to him but I could her. She was telling him that what she felt, and what the others felt didn't matter. They knew how much he had lost and suffered and how much he had meant to him. She told him that if he was alive, they would find him, she promised, but it didn't sound to me like she had much hope that whoever he was, he was still alive.

The dark headed fella started to cry all soft like and she got hold of him and got him out the door.

A few nights later he was back. That night an older tall black haired man came for him. They looked each other for a minute and the man told him to come on, but I noticed he didn't take his arm like the other folks did that came for him. The dark haired boy asked him why he was here and the man kind of cut his eyes around and told him he could think of a thousand things he would rather be doing, but it was unfortunately, his turn to come drag him home like the wayward child he insisted upon acting like. Now, I remember thinking that was an odd answer. Maybe the young fella was from a mental hospital and got out on a pass every so often and these were the attendants that worked there.

Anyway the young fella looked at him and told him to go on, he wasn't going back. The older man told him he was as big an idiot as his father had been and that he wasn't going to waste his time babysitting someone who had given up. Then he turned and stomped out of the door.

I wondered what the young fella was going to do then. He just sat there like he was going to cry or scream, but in a minute or two the brown haired girl was coming through the door in a rush with a red headed man right behind her. They hustled over and herded him out the door. They must have been waiting in a car outside to have got in here so quick.

Then one night after a few months of this he was sitting here and suddenly the girl was back, it was earlier than usual for someone to come after him, but there she was looking around at the door in kind of a panic. I caught her eye and pointed toward the end of the bar. She practically ran over there. She grabbed his arm and he kind of jumped and spun around all at one time.

She yelled out, we found him, we found him.

The dark haired fella stood up and hollered and everybody looked at em. But he didn't seem to notice. He asked her where, how did they find him, how was he.

She said, let me think, I believe the name was Snape, yea that's right, she said Snape had found him at the manor. She said he was bad off, but they thought he would make it, but they needed to hurry. Tears were pouring down both their faces and he grabbed her and they ran out of the door.

I remember feeling a lump come up in my throat. I wasn't sure who the hell it was that they had been looking for, or what was going on, or even who they were, but if it made the fella that happy it had to be a good thing.

I hadn't thought about that fella for a year or two until the other night. We was all here, like usual, and in walked the dark haired fella. I saw him coming through the door and thought oh no, something must have happened. Then I saw that he was holding the door for someone.

It was a blonde headed fella, I remember thinking, he does kind of resemble that Roberts with all that long blonde hair pulled back.

Anyway, the blonde was limping; he had a cane he was leaning on. The dark headed one helped him get sat down. He was holding on to his arm like he was carrying a pot of gold. He kept grinning and asking the blonde if he was comfortable. The blonde kept telling him yes, and to quit fussing over him, but you could tell he really didn't mean it because when he looked up at the dark headed one and he just looked happy. The blonde had a deep scar across his cheek and one arm didn't seem to work good, but you can't mistake a smile like that, that was the smile of someone in love.

I heard the dark headed one tell the blonde that this is where he waited for him, waited for them to find him. The blonde asked him how he could have been so sure that they would find him, and the dark haired one told him that he was owed one good thing in his life and he was it, and then he said he just never thought that the one person that seemed to hate him the most would be the one that returned the only thing he loved to him. The blonde said kind of quiet like that he didn't know himself if they would get there in time and his voice got thick like he was remembering bad things. The dark haired fella patted his arm and told him not to worry that it was all over.

They sat and ordered a drink and talked. Then after a while they got up and started toward the door.

I don't know why I did it but I went around the edge of the bar and stopped them. I held my hand out to the dark haired fella. He took it and shook it and I told him I was glad that he was finally happy and had found his friend.

He smiled at me and his green eyes twinkled, he told me thanks and then they left. I haven't ever seen them back in here. I sure hope everything worked out for them.

Yea, we get all kinds in here.