Me, Myself and Them by Dan Mooney

Author:Dan Mooney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Park Row Books
Published: 2018-04-19T18:10:24+00:00

VERY OLD CIRCLES

The first sip was bitter on his tongue, and he forced himself to drink it out of a pure stubbornness that was ingrained deeply in him. The second was the taste of every drink he’d had in nearly five years of college life. He was in another universe again, the old one. It smelled of bars and cigarette smoke. It smelled of Rebecca’s perfume too. It sounded like laughing and joking. It looked like smiling. Denis found himself lost in it. He was drunk from the second sip, not on the alcohol, but on the freedom.

By the time the first drink was finished, he had stopped looking at the stains on the floor, at the overspill from the taps and at the unkempt regulars who had been drinking all day with a determination that matched his own. He spent the time as he sipped that first beer simply listening and smiling, rarely contributing to the conversation. In turn, Frank, Ollie and Rebecca cast him sideways glances to check that he was okay. He couldn’t blame them for worrying. For quite a while his modus operandi was to bail when things became difficult, but that was when he lived in the universe that his housemates lived in. They didn’t live here, not in this bar, not with this Denis. Here, he was Denny. On his second drink he joked a little, he made fun of Ollie’s shirt and reduced Roisin to helpless fits of laughter with the story about Ollie’s attempts at talking to older women during college. Ollie and Frank both returned fire with jokes about his tie and shirt combinations. They mocked his regularity, and he lapped up the laughter they inspired in him.

“Serious question,” Frank announced, his face straight. “Exactly how many minutes did you agonize over the shirt and tie?”

Twelve was the answer. Denis said nothing, just smiled.

“C’mon,” Ollie interjected. “You don’t think he picked it tonight, do you? He had this combination picked on Monday morning. It was item number twenty-four on the list. There is no item twenty-three because everyone knows you can’t divide twenty-three evenly.”

The laughter kicked in again. So often, Denis wondered if people were laughing at him. At his ways, his oddness. Were they sharing a joke about how he lived his life? Now, they were laughing with him. It felt good. He couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed so much in such a short space of time. Frank tended to laugh quietly, and it suited his demeanor, while Ollie’s laugh was half a cackle and caused heads to turn. Somewhere, way in the back of his head, he could hear Plasterer growling at their laughter. How dare they? the clown would ask. Denis ignored the growling and bought a round of drinks.

Good. Good. I’m proud of you. So proud. You’re doing great.

They moved onto another pub, where Denis entertained the woman who worked behind the bar with a new answer to the question; “How are you?” every time he passed her or bought a drink.

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