Dirty Old Men (And Other Stories)
The BartenderAn older man sat on a lone barstool at The Hot Spot Lounge on Eighty-Fifth Street and Cottage Grove Avenue on the south side of Chicago on a cold evening. At a quarter after six, the place wasn't that crowded. And without the competition for drinks, the man was already working on his second rum and Coke.
Up above his head at opposite ends behind the bar were two small televsion sets. On the small set to the right side of him, the ESPN network was talking NBA basketball. The sports analysts were discussing who were getting the most votes for the All-Star game that year in Las Vegas. The TV hanging from the left side paraded the latest music video from Nelly. The young St. Louis native was rapping about buying expensive, designer "grillz" of thousand-dollar jewelry across his teeth, while the hot video vixens shook what their mommas gave them across the camera screens.
The man tilted his head back, his drink in his warm palm, staring like a horny vulture, imagining how he would have swooped down and gobbled up the enticing prey more than two decades ago. He was suspended in admiration while the hypnotic vi ... read full excerpt from: Dirty Old Men (And Other Stories) ebook
