Bright Before Us by Katie Arnold-Ratliff

Author:Katie Arnold-Ratliff
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Tin House Books
Published: 2011-04-06T22:00:00+00:00

At half after four Rebekah left with her father. I went to a bar about ten blocks from Hawthorne, where a group of pathetic men in Hawaiian shirts enjoyed a complicated trivia event. College kids played Connect Four in the corner. Slowly, I swiveled my head: the place was eighty percent girls, with their rainbow-colored cocktails and shared orders of six measly chicken wings. The chalkboard above the bar advertised two dozen shooters designed to mimic baked goods: the Pineapple Upside Down Cake, the Bananas Foster, the Jelly Donut. Boston Cream Pie, I read aloud.

The bartender swung a rag beside him like he was twirling his pistol. That’s what you want? That’s our specialty.

I shook my head and ordered a shot of Jameson. And a beer, I added.

The bartender frowned. Heretic, he said.

I downed the shot, then pointed to the tiny glass. He refilled it.

You look, the bartender said, like someone in a movie playing a sad guy in a bar.

I looked up at him.

Straight out of central casting, he said.

When I didn’t return it, his smile faded.

Do you have a phone? I asked.

He set it down beside me. Local, right?

Do you have a phone book? I took a prodigious swig and looked down: the beer and the second shot were gone.

He set the directory next to the phone, motioning to my empty glass. Another?

Yeah, I said, skimming the pages—pet grooming, pest control, preschool. I stopped flipping, running my finger down the columns of numbers.

The bartender looked down at the page. Oh, Lord, he said, pouring my refill. It just gets better and better.

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