Counter-intuitive as it may sound, closing time was Al's favorite time of the day . Though not for any of the obvious reasons.
Not because he was eager to finish work and head home, nor because he was looking forward to throw back a few beers with colleagues or friends after hours.
No, it was the silence.
Or rather the way the contrasting quiet enveloped the normally perpetually noisy bar like a soft blanket of solemnity when he finally locked the door of The Boatsman's Ale House behind the last patron. For some reason the darkened and deserted locale conveyed a fuzzy feeling of comfort and tranquillity in him. The layout of the place was so familiar that he hardly needed to turn on any lights. The streetlights shining through the dirt-streaked windows from the outside combined with the softly humming neon sign over the bar provided ample illumination for him to safely navigate the premises and finish up his work for the night.
So Al took his time wiping down the tables and flipping the chairs while enjoying the calm solitude in an almost meditative state.
"It's not like Jess is sitting at home eagerly waiting anyway," he mumbled sarcastically to nobody in particular.
He had forgotten where she said that she was going that night - some random upscale party probably - but truth be told, he didn't really care. Al wasn't invited, and wouldn't have attended even if he had been. In fact, many of her friends probably didn't even know that she was married. She didn't wear her wedding ring anymore because of 'allergies'.
"Yeah right," Al thought sardonically.
To say that they had drifted apart was the understatement of the century and, given his recent discovery, ever drifting back together was a highly unlikely prospect.
"Maybe I'm getting old," he sighed.
It was a feeling that often assailed him as of late. The feeling of being an old man long past his prime and hopelessly stuck at a dead end, while Jessica seemed to retain all the energy and drive of a high school sophomore. Al just couldn't keep up anymore. There was no denying that they lived very different lives, and had probably done so for a while before he realized it.
Just in that moment his depressing train of thoughts was derailed by an unexpected noise. The sound of somebody knocking softly on the front door.
He almost dropped a tray of dirty glasses from sheer surprise.
"What the fuck?" he thought to himself. "Who is dumb enough to knock on the door to a closed bar with all the lights out in the middle of the night? Like hell I'd open for anybody at this hour."
Certain that he couldn't be seen from the outside Al stood unmoving next to a table waiting for the knocker to give up and go away. Whomever it was would not be ignored however and kept at it with dogged persistency.
Al considered his options.
Calling the cops was of course the safest bet, but in this part of town they had a fairly long response time this late at night. Especially to incidents that weren't emergencies. He could risk being stuck in the bar till early morning. And simply waiting for the person to get tired and go away seemed an equally long prospect, given the persistent nature of whomever was out there.
"Arh fuck it!"
He grabbed the revolver from under the desk, checked the cylinder (yep, fully loaded) and went to answer the door. The knocking finally stopped just as he grabbed the handle.
Gun in hand and ready for anything Al carefully inched the door open.
"Sorry, but we're closed..." he started. But the next words froze in his throat.
A petite redheaded girl sporting one of those edgy asymmetric hairstyles with partly shaved areas and dressed in a black leather jacket decorated with a myriad of patches sat slumped next to the door in a widening pool of blood. She looked sickly pale and weak.
"Help," she pleaded with an almost inaudible voice.
"Holy shit!" Al exclaimed and pocketed his revolver. "What happened here? Oh my god lass, you are bleeding bad. Come on! Let's get you inside quickly."
Al wasn't a big man, but luckily the girl was unusually light, and he had no problem dragging her inside and locking the door behind them. He tried to handle her as gently as possible, but if she had been attacked by somebody, that somebody could still be out there. Getting them both inside was a priority, he decided.
The girl moaned a little as he carefully placed her on the floor, but otherwise she took it like a champ.
"I'm sorry lass, but we had to get off the street," he apologized. "Just hang on, ok? I'll call for help. Everything is gonna be alright. Don't you worry."
A slim but surprisingly strong hand grabbed his sleeve, and the the girl looked up at him with an intense stare out of a pair of emerald green eyes.
"No! I'll be offed. Shoulder... dig it out..."
She let go of his sleeve, but kept her gaze locked on him.
"Seriously lass. This is a bar. Not a hospital. Even if you don't want the police involved, you need proper medical care."
"No!" she repeated in a strained but firm voice. "Shoulder - just remove that shit. Please."
Despite the absurdity of her obvious delusion, something about her desperate plea felt genuine. Al wasn't prone to believe in conspiracies, but this girl was clearly convinced that she was in danger from the authorities. And regardless of whether she was delusional or not, a panic attack was the last thing she needed in her weakened state. Judging from her pallor she had lost a significant amount of blood. Fugitive from the law or not, her life could be in jeopardy.
Thus Al decided to take a look at her wound himself before calling for help. Partly in the hope that he might be able talk some sense into the crazy girl after accommodating her wish.
With a little assistance from the girl herself, he managed to get her out of her bloody jacket and onto a table. Now that she was wearing only jeans and a white sleeveless top, he was struck by how skinny she was. Her richly tattooed arms were hardly thicker than the muscle and bones inside them, and when he turned her onto her stomach, he could literally feel her ribs through the thin fabric. But malnutrition wasn't the most pressing issue right there and then.
"Sorry, but I need to cut your shirt," he warned her.
She nodded weakly.
A single glance at the wound told Al all he needed to know. The girl had evidently been shot and the bullet was lodged in her shoulder, more specifically the posterior superior glenoid. As he began the process of extracting it, she emitted a small yelp and mercifully passed out.
******
The girl, now dressed in one of Al's old shirts several sizes too large for her, devoured her burger with a voraciousness that belied her skinny frame.
"Want another?" Al inquired with some astonishment.
"Ain't got no money."
"Never mind that lass. Nobody ever buys these greasy things anyway. Freshly made gourmet fast food is all people want these days. You can have as many as you like on the house."
He grabbed another prefab burger from the freezer and popped it in the microwave.
"Names Meiread," she said between bites. "Call me Mei. Not Lassie. I ain't no dog."
"Nice to meet you Mei. I'm Al. And I'm also very curious about what happened. How did you end up outside my door with a gunshot wound? And what kind of bullet was that anyway? I've never seen anything like it before. It has weird engravings on it and..."
"Why didn't ya freak?" she interrupted him. "Or is surgery with kitchen utensils what ya do around here?"
Al couldn't help smiling at her obvious attempt at changing the subject.
"Fortunately no. You're the first patient I have ever treated in my bar. But I am actually a doctor, so I'm no stranger to treating wounds, albeit with more suitable equipment. Talking about which, you seriously need proper care ..."
"Fuck that." Mei injected while flexing her shoulder. "I feel fine."
"And you should definitely report this incident to the police."
"Fuck that even harder!" she stated firmly and took another bite.
"So what's a doctor doing in a bar anyway? How come ya ain't out golfing and banging nurses and shit?"
Al couldn't hold back a chuckle.
"You don't exactly hold the medical profession is high regard, eh? Anyway, I'm retired."
"Retired?" Mei looked surprised. "That's early. Ya can't be much over fifty."
"I'm forty four," he corrected her a little hurt. "And if you must know, I retired for health reasons. Broke down from stress basically. Turned out that the job wasn't for me. Trust me, working in a hospital isn't nearly as cool in real life as it is made out to look on TV."
Al honestly didn't know why he was explaining himself to this strange girl, but it wasn't like he had ever made a secret of his situation. The regulars knew, and and Jessica too of course, though she had never seemed interested in talking about his problems. So why not spill the beans to this stranger? He had nothing to hide or be ashamed of.
"Ya downgraded from doctor to bartender? Bet she loved that." Mei pointed at his hand with the wedding band.
"I don't know what you are implying, but Jess was supportive of my decision of course," Al said defensively.
"Yeah right! And I'm Kim fucking Kardashian."
He was starting to get annoyed with her flippant and sarcastic attitude.
"You don't know anything about me Mei. Maybe you should refrain from judging others."
"I know about bitches," she stated defiantly. "Scoring a doctor and having him swapped for a bartender? Like going from a bottle of wine to a can of stale beer."
"You have a very cynical outlook on life Mei. Not everybody share such dour values y'know."
"Bullshit! Saw the PI report in ya desk, when I woke up. She's totally fucking around on ya."
"You what?" Al almost shouted. "You had no right to rummage through my office. I put you in there to recover. It wasn't an invitation poke your nose into my private business."
"Hey, don't blow a gasket doc. I was looking for food, ok? I ain't no spy. Did read the file though. Pretty straight forward, if yer ask me. She's totally fucking some dude and they're working on skinning ya in a divorce. It's all in there, if ya read between the lines."