In defense of day drinking
Saturday, April 13, 2024
In retrospect, the second grenade was overkill.
He had said that he wanted it to be loud, make a point, let the neighbors know that something needed to be done, but she didn’t need both grenades for that.
It was just a trailer, after all, and considering what was inside it, she could have gotten the job done with a couple of highway flares.
But Charlotte was never one for half measures.
At least that’s what her mother had said.
Charlotte remembered her mom saying a lot of things.
Lately she was less sure they were things her mother had actually said.
Taking another sip of her beer, she squinted as the door opened on the bar.
It was mid-afternoon, summer, and the sunlight cracked through the room, an angry reminder that it was too early for the civilized to be drinking.
Except everyone in this bar was past the point of those sorts of reminders.
If the daylight had something to say, it had best keep it to itself, find another room more open to being told what to do with its time.
The newcomer sat a couple of stools away from her, ordered a Jack and Coke, kept his eyes straight ahead of him, locked on his phone.
He wasn’t a regular, not based on how he was dressed.
He held his phone in his hand as the bartender slid his drink across, and as he took the first sip, she raised her bottle.
“To your health,” she said.
He looked at her, seeing her for the first time, nodded his head once, then took a larger sip.
A gulp, more like.
“Hard day?”
“So far,” he said.
“That obvious?”
She waved the bottle, taking in the room.
“It’s 2pm, you’re here, and you’re working that Jack and Coke like it owes you money.”
He snorted, shaking his head.
“Yeah…money.”
“What is it? Job? Gambling? Alimony?”
“None of the above. I’ve got a good job, I only play the lottery, and happily married.”
“I wonder if that last one would be true if she found out.”
He was about to take another drink, but stopped at that.
“Found out?”
“I’ll tell you a story…Craig?”
“Greg.”
“You look more like a Craig. No offense.”
“None taken.”
“So, a story. About this guy. Let’s call him Craig.
“Craig has a good job, pretty recession proof, something in machine parts, I don’t know.
“Not his company, so it’s not his neck on the line for anything, not really, but he’s got some responsibility.
“But this Craig, like you and me and the rest of us, he wants things to be a little better than they are.
“His wife would like a nicer car, bigger house, maybe he’d like a better set of golf clubs.
“Now the machine parts business, it does pretty well, but not a lot of chance to move up.
“And then Craig meets someone, we’ll call him Rudy.
“Rudy knows a way Craig can get those golf clubs, that car, and that house.”
“Sounds like something Craig couldn’t pass up.”
“You’d think, if Craig was a dull boy, he wouldn’t, because a deal like that, well, it can’t be legal, right?
“And Rudy lets Craig know that it’s not, but no ones going to get hurt.
“He just needs to make sure some boxes get through without too many people opening them.
“Rudy’s got a guy who’s got a guy, but they need one more guy.
“That guy could be Craig, Rudy tells him.”
“What’s the catch?”
“See, Greg? You’re already smarter than Craig. That’s the question, and Craig didn’t ask.
“Because what Rudy left out when he pitched his plan to Craig was that there’s someone else who’s got this same idea.
“Someone Rudy knows, but Rudy thinks he’s smart enough that he’s paid off the right people so that this other guy, and we’ll call him Trevor, because that’s a nice non-threatening name, Trevor won’t know that Rudy’s pulling a few boxes.
“Boxes Trevor’s expecting instead.
“Boxes Rudy’s been storing at his trailer.
“Boxes Craig’s been dropping off at Rudy’s house on his way home from work.”
Greg swallowed the last of his drink, and signaled for another.
“I’m not sure I’d do that, Greg.”
“You a cop? Going to bust me for DWI?”
“Be better for you if I was.
“You’re going to want a clear head for this next bit.
“That’s a nice house you’ve got, Greg.
“I’d hate for it to turn out like Rudy’s trailer there.”
She pointed her beer bottle at his phone.
“Good news is, Rudy wasn’t inside it when that happened.
“Bad news, is he wasn’t inside it because he doesn’t need somewhere to live anymore.”
Greg went back to staring at his phone.
“You seem like a smart guy, Greg. Smarter than Craig, maybe.
“Not that it would take much.
“Craig seemed like the kind of guy who asked too many of the wrong questions.
“A smart guy like you? Asks just enough of the right ones.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“See? That? Right there? That’s the right question for this moment, Greg.
“Now, I’m going to finish this beer, and I’m going to make a call. Going to tell Trevor that we had this talk, and that you’re out of the import business.”
“And that’s it? I’m out?”
“Greg. You were working a franchise without a license.
“Took food out of someone’s mouth.
“So there will need to be restitution.
“Don’t worry, I’ve already taken care of that.”
Charlotte slid off the bar stool, swallowed the last of her beer, and walked to the door.
She stopped by it, looking back at Greg, shoulders slumping as he slid off his own stool and followed her outside.
For a man seeing the Escalade he’d just bought two days ago burning down to its rims in a bar parking lot, Greg took it pretty well.
“Trevor wanted the house, but I think I convinced him this would be enough.
“You and Rudy didn’t take that much, and it sends the message.”
“I think I get the message.”
She turned to him as she got in her car, wanting to leave before the fire trucks got there.
“Oh, Greg, it’s not for you.”