locations with three taps each were sinks, gleaming unexpectedly clean via the embedded halogen lamps above them. While dinginess overcame all that I surveyed out on the floo

esture at the bar and the surroundings. "What do you think?" No further along in being capable

nes

eas

t m

en a ba

ief

e said wi

uncl

ut your unc

be a bartender, I haven

to learn," he said with his chuckle. "Business couldn't be described as bris

get

that had been hiding in his jacket pocket. In his hand he held a shiny

ndred a w

t. Specific expenses. Whatever it takes. He'll take care of it. But you got to get to a point to make this place viable after six months or you're out on your own. I mean, no more salary. Only what you get from the place. You

self. I got to school on time. I did my school work with enough attention to it. I got to work on time and did the work expected of me. Whatever direction I stepped, it was one in which I could get b

ry about it. If you heed my in

" I was tr

open all day and all night except when it's

t'd

to midnight. Give you couple extra hours in the morning. Stretch your

left Sunday night. Caged me in, having acquired a couple locks and a noisy metal gate. I watched his last moves carefully. Maybe I would catch him. And I did. The concern

. Then I realized: Bills! No more bills. Expenses paid! A thousand

ite in daily, but the last entry was the first and it had been written sometime mid-winter, and this being early fall, I would have to admit failure. Perhaps the first change in me was my success

r 2nd I was disturbed by the buzzer noise emanating from the box attached to t

he place: Bouncer. The devout alcoholics would reach their formidable limit of intoxication.

ndered who might be near enough to deliver, both restaurant and grocery. That's when the first idea for Bradley's registered. After calling a few places and discovering a couple who de

pen impotently, the lock hanging broken from the metal door handle. The hallway led to another door which opened to the space that bifurcated the back wall with its passage

e exploring its possibilities I heard the front door open. It was food. I paid gratefully, a memorable gratuity, so they would not mind returning with good

s and oven and griddle and fridge a

ce shine: a little incongru

the drin

about t

drink t

y make sen

the be

at th

portance of paper. It kept my m

n, after the barflies left to alight at some other tavern, the only other type of customer was the street transvestite. These women with cocks would arrive at nearly closing time already buzzed

on, who would sit with the "girls." He was a slim, sharp dressed and groomed handsome man with a bit of the cherub to his face set between the cascades of his long dark brown curly hair. Whenever he was there, he see