True to my prediction, the Thursday night brings more customers in. Maybe I should change my profession if the pub business is busted. But never once that I predicted Mr. Punctuality would be here today, this bothers me a little bit. However this worry of mine was gone like the wind when the orders pile up and I barely managed to keep up with demand from all directions in this small quarter. Perhaps it is the time for me to hire an extra hand if the business is always this good.
The rush hour slowed down as the numbers shown on the clock gets bigger and bigger until it reached the number of two. Most of the crowd already left as the late hour approaches, leaving some of the drunkard lingering at the door's front and soon my biggest fear happened. A faint sound of someone vomiting can be heard through the wooden door.
"Great, thank you for your souvenir!" I complained to absolutely no one as my eyes were locked in staring at the door hoping to identify the drunkard that dirtied my doorway that is hidden behind the exit. I take out the mop and a pail of water ASAP to the doorway. It is better to clean the vomit now, in case it'll start to smell very bad in a short time. The yellow and white substance similar to baby's porridge spills along to the main road. While mopping away the ewe-inducing matter, I begin to curse unconsciously. Finally, after I am done with the cleaning job, I walked back into the pub as another surprise waits for my arrival.
The big surprise for me would be seeing that man is still present at this time and not showing any signs of leaving anytime soon. With his blood shot eyes and groggy faces he stares hard at me as if I am a new found species in this land. Yep, he is drunk, to the point he may forgets his last name.
He gives me a sign with his fingers pointing the number of one.
"One more"
I just followed his will, nothing good will comes if I try to persuade him to stop. While hoping this is the last one drink for him I served his favorite drink to him, the iced whiskey. It is pretty late now and I don't want to miss another business day for the same reason again. The liquor in his hand is gone in a blink of eye. Pausing for a moment, the man held his head with his palm.
"Why do people drink liquor?" the question he asked seems out of the blue for me. As I am expecting him to grumbles something inaudible. He somehow managed to grinds out a philosophical question.
I remained silent assuming that he was going to answer it himself.
"I don't know either" he added.
His answer has failed my expectation on him. This conversation between a drunk and bartender won't go anywhere far. Pretty laughable, I begin to question my sanity and intelligence to believe that a constructive conversation would actually happen from this unlikely pair. This kind of cinematic thingy can only happen in the melodrama that is shown on TV.
"Have you ever loved someone?" Mr. Punctuality gives out another question as he straightens his back. This nickname needs a change though considering his habit is gone now. But I can't come out with a new one at the moment, so this one will do for the mean time.
"Given my age, it would be an oddity if I haven't" to be told the truth I am reluctant to discuss about this topic and anything related. But feeding the curiosity of a drunk won't do any harm either.
And thus he begins the long talk about his life story.
"I have a beautiful wife and daughter with a happy family life" he paused a moment to clear his throat "A car, a big house and a puppy" he added with a chuckle.
A pretty cliché happy family setting that can be seen as the norm these days.
"I teach at a college nearby and that is when I met her, she is one a student of my class. She is an outgoing and free spirited young lady. A girl that can easily seduces any man if she desired to. At first, it started as a close teacher and student relations but one day she suddenly confessed to me".
I don't need him to finish his explanation for me to know where he is going.
"So you are having an affair and your wife found out"
He kept silent and nodded in agreement.
"But she was such an attractive girl that I can't seemed to control myself at the moment and I just goes with the flow" the man desperately trying to justify the mistakes he committed. For me, his words sound like he was pushing away all the faults to the girl.
Those words of excuse he gave are kind of cheap and irresponsible for a grown man. I just gave him a fitting nod that he would appreciate, while I am not really interested to hear the excuses spouting out from his mouth. I kept myself busy with wiping glasses nonchalantly with a piece of cloth.
But it is understandable. When people face any kind of difficulties or failures, more or less, they will always find an excuse to conceal themselves from that.
The distressed man in front of me continues to babble about his problem without any indication of stopping. It was about a divorcement, quarrels, child crying and plea for forgiveness but not a single word that concerns about the girl he's having affair with. The more he talked about his love's life, the sorrier I felt for the girl, a victim of a man's irresponsibility. His story becomes more disjointed and repetitive as the time passed. Eventually he stood up and left the pub with the bills tucked under a glass. As he left this place, I had a hunch. Something deep inside my brain told me that he won't be coming here again.
That night I thought about a lot of things, about who is on the wrong or right. It is a waste of time to worry about the other problem. Even though I knew there is no definite answer for the problem. Yet, I still ponder about it. But there is one thing that I can be sure. For the first time in a long while, I felt sorry for someone misfortune. Not for the man, nor his family, but for the girl.
