with a splash and a twist,” she called approaching the bar. The cocktail was waiting for her by the time she’d slid her tray on the deck. That’s how it was done back-in-the-day. The “day” was the night, Glendale, Colorado, 1975. The Warehouse Dinner Theater. She was from Texas. And I wonder still …
As she made the call I reached for a heavy-bottomed rock glass, neatly stacked to my right on the bar. I snatched the glass and flipped it to my left-hand as I scooped up the silver, slick, ice-scoop with my right. Filling the glass with ice and setting it on the brown, rubber spill-guard, my right arm dropped to the speed rack and throttled the neck of a bottle. Dark, Kentucky whiskey.
In a flash I poured an ounce and a half over the ice, plucked the soda-gun from its holster with my left hand, then tapped a button and splashed a dash of water into the drink.
Subsequently, I snatched a twist of lemon from the garnish-tray, twisted the lemon tightly, rimmed it ’round the edge of the glass, then dropped that twisted lemon into that dark drink. Finally, I took a barber-poled, swizzle-stick from a high-ball glass and slid it between the ice.
Iced-cubes chilling whiskey. Nice. Neat. Cool.
Sweet. Ready. Next.
She landed softly with a smile. I nodded. She raised her eyebrows, picked up the drink, and slid away into the fog. A dark, smokey room I couldn’t see.
On the stage, Waylon Jennings plucked the first strings of his guitar. Honky Tonk Heroes.
Later On (October, 2022)
I wonder about her. What might have been? If “things” were different.
When I drink dark whiskey … sometimes I think of her.
Other worlds, other lives!
Real life time travel, which is a question asked in OUTLANDER
[ https://markedwardjabbour.com/2022/10/03/outlander-series-season-one/ ]
If you could go back in time and take the left fork instead of the right, would you?
And there’s another layer to that: If you knew what happened ‘down the road’ could you actually change the future by doing something other than what you did?
And still another layer: Say in the story above, suppose I chose her instead of who I did choose. That changes the question because ‘my choice’ involves an other, who has a say. So which path I take really isn’t ‘up to me’; but up to us, or ‘we’. And suppose the other is of a different nature than me? Say of a passive disposition. They are hesitant to make decisions but rather prefer ‘the universe’ make the choice. (Prays, reads signs, takes a poll, etc.) And so I do what I did. Thus throwing the question of ‘Free Will’ into the equation.
Back to the beginning: Could I really have done anything different than what I did?
OUTLANDER plays with that. But there is no answer because things are what they are.
Nevertheless, I wonder, because that’s my nature. 🙂
However, I don’t let that stop me from making my next choice.
And if there IS ‘other worlds’, what difference does THAT make? How does that change this world?
All of that is to say – I actually prefer living solo – having done both.
[ https://markedwardjabbour.com/2019/08/28/living-solo/ ]