She Said by Mitchell D. King

Author:Mitchell D. King
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flanker Press
Published: 2023-05-19T18:20:52+00:00

20

* * *

Lewis

Present

* * *

I had to stop showing up to this court racket. I had been thrown under the bus on various occasions for letting people into the bar underage. As if I were the only bouncer on George Street who did that. The street was crawling with underage kids, but everybody turned a blind eye unless something went catastrophically wrong. There’s now been half a dozen times that somebody has bellowed, “Lewis McBride let me into the bar.” Then those dickhead lawyers double down on it and make them repeat what they said to hammer home the point. As if letting Mia and her friends into the bar was the very reason that this Harris fella met her.

I had seen Harris dozens of times before. He usually sat at the far end of the bar, drinking beer and shooting whiskey. He occasionally talked to the bartenders, but for the most part, he kept to himself. He did attract attention from his fair share of ladies. Though, to be fair, most nights he left the bar alone. It was a shock that he gave Mia the attention that he did. The bartenders all claimed him to be an excellent tipper, and they loved seeing him come through the door. To me, he always seemed withdrawn. His eyes were sad and lonely, almost closed off, as if there were an invisible barrier.

I was screwed, anyway—there was no way I was going to be allowed to go back to work at the Broken Dog. I walked down the big staircase in the middle of the Supreme Court. My hand slid down the semiglossed brown railing, and my shoes clacked down each step. I breezed through the gate, pushing the metal bar out of my way, and forced open the big doors onto Duckworth Street.

I stepped out onto the sidewalk and breathed in deeply through my nose. I reached into the inner pocket of my jacket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. I pulled one out and lit it, breathing in deeply. The smoke filled my lungs, and I closed my eyes as I let it out through my nostrils. A light rain pecked all around, and I could hear the soft drumming of the water on the hoods of nearby vehicles.

I hoped I wasn’t going to be called as a witness. Of course, I was there the first two nights that Harris and Mia interacted. I hadn’t spoken to Mia about it and prayed it would not be brought up. Nietzsche said that sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed. Truthfully, I don’t know what really happened on all of those nights. I do know that Mia asked me about him that night in June. I know that Mia was the one who initiated conversation when she asked me to bring the tray of shots to the table. I also know, that night when they came out of the bathroom, she didn’t

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.