It had been a long day, but once I got checked into the hotel I decided to head back downstairs for a few drinks before heading to bed. I was dead tired after fighting airport delays, screwed up rental car reservations and a long drive in the pouring rain to get here, but I knew I was too wound up to go to sleep just yet. Stepping into a tiny, dimly lit room I picked one seat from the long row of empty seats at the bar.
The bartender was huddled up at the end of the bar, using one of the few lights in the place to read by. I watched as he finished reading the page, carefully sliding a bookmark between the pages before closing the book and placing it on the bar. It was a large, hardback book, perhaps a college book.
"What can I get you?" he asked with a touch of an accent.
"What do you have on tap?"
"Miller, Bud, Michelob and Sam Adam's Pale."
"Yeah, let me have a Sam Adams, please."
The bartender nodded, pulled a tall glass from the rack above his head, twirled the glass in the palm of his hand and then moved over to the tap. He let the amber liquid roll gently into the glass until it was about three quarters full, then he tilted the glass upward, letting a bit of foam form at the top of the glass.
"Here you go, anything else?"
"You have some peanuts or something?"
Reaching beneath the bar he pulled out a bowl and opening a small jar, pour in some mixed nuts. He placed them on the bar beside my glass and said, "If you finish these up, just let me know, I've got plenty here."
"What you reading?"
"Reading?"
I nodded over to his book.
"Oh, it's Macroeconomics, I'm not really sure that's really reading though. I'm studying for a test."
"Already?"
"Yeah, two weeks in class and there's a test."
"Maybe to figure out what you remembered from last year."
"Except it's a first level course, I guess they want to know if any of us knows anything."
"Well, don't let me keep you from studying."
"Thanks. Just holler if you need anything."
Over the next hour, I worked my way through the bowl of mixed nuts and finished off several beers. I guess I was starting my fourth beer when a young man walked in, looked around the bar as if searching for someone and then walked back out into the hotel lobby. He was gone for a few minutes and then wandered back into the bar taking a seat about midway between me and the bartender.
The bartender glanced up from his book and then said, "Oh hey Yuki, you meeting someone?"
"Yeah, a Ms. Lombard. You see any unattached ladies around?"
"No, just one customer tonight," he said, nodding in my direction. "Can I get you something Yuki"
The young man looked over at me, nodded in greeting and then turned back to the bartender, "Yeah, let me have Sam Adams." He then looked up at me, smiled and reached out his hand, "I'm Yuki Watanabe, you're new here aren't you?"
"I'm here on business, from Houston," I replied taking his hand and returning the firm handshake.
Pointing to the seat between us he asked, "Do you mind?"
I shook my head, "No," then slid the nearly empty bowl of mixed nuts between us. "Not many left here, but you're welcome."
The bartender handed Yuki his beer and then took his jar of nuts and refilled our bowl. Yuki looked up at the bartender and asked, "You still studying Jack?"
"Yeah, this Macroeconomics..."
"Hey, hey, don't you go cussing at me. Go back over there and study your books." He then looked over to me and asked, "You're on business, what do you do, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Oh no... I'm in construction, I'm out to visit a project site."
"The new prison expansion?" he asked.
"Yeah, that's the one."
"Well, let me buy you a beer, that place has needed some work for years. Jack, Jack before you sit down, bring Mister...," he looked at me.
"Jensen, Allen Jensen."
"Bring Mister Jensen another beer please."
The bartender looked warily at me, so I held up my room key and said, "It's okay, I'm not driving. I'm in for the night."
"Okay, because you are a guest here. You can't be too careful these days," he said as he handed me the beer.