Notes From a Dive Bar XXXV - I Have a Bad Feeling About This

I tell the doorman. I have a bad feeling about tonight. Soon, the twisted is spotted. His face barrels evil. This one with a mustache, most menacing.
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(Above - the night, after leaving the bar)

I tell the doorman. I have a bad feeling about tonight.

Soon, the twisted is spotted. His face barrels evil. This one with a mustache, most menacing. Double whiskeys and Red Bulls, beer as the undertow. Conversational moron. Wearing some kind of sports team top. His hair like a toilet brush that's seen too many swishes inside the bowl. He's flush with angry bullshit.

Screams from ladies at the dart board. We arrive, the doorman and I roll him onto the street. He vanishes, then returns when the doorman's back is turned, and whacks him with fists. A black and white rolls up with the siren silent. Cuffed, the bastard resists, the cops twist his arm, a contortionist in a freak show. I'm sure his mustache is about to fall off. I hand the cop the credit card he left behind. I hope I didn't overcharge him. The doorman asks about my sixth sense.

The bar closes. MAC sweeps. I wipe.
He tells a story.
Yesterday, he met a guy, he hadn't seen in a while.
Thirty years ago, the guy robbed him with a .357 Magnum. MAC had a boombox attached to his ear, chirpy and blissfully drunk. He saw birds after the pistol whip.
I never forget a face with a gun, says MAC.
Do you want revenge? I ask.
He didn't turn his back on me.
Did he say sorry?
Nope. He said he got a good price for the boombox.

The weatherman is on the TV saying storms are coming.
I have a bad feeling about it.
He lives around here now, says MAC, looking at his lottery ticket.

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