The Bar

The neon went up on a Friday in 1976, and the first customer complained about the colour.She was right. We kept it anyway.Sit. I will tell you which of us she became.Billie Marlowe1970s · OpeningSit and ask We nearly lost the lease in 2014.Forty regulars turned up with envelopes and no explanation.I still have the envelopes. Come see what was written on them.Billie Marlowe2010s · ClosingSit and ask The back booth was built in a weekend by women who had never held a saw.It leans two degrees to the left and we call it character.Sit in it and tell me it is straight.Sasha Petrov1990s · RepairSit and ask Someone started an argument about the best bridge in the city.It ended in a knot on the pool table that is still there.Put your hand on it and pick a side.Sasha Petrov2000s · BrawlSit and ask Nineteen eighty-four, the night the owner's ex came to collect a debt.I represented the bar that evening and I was not qualified.Argue the other side. I want to see if you can.Ramona Ellis1980s · ScandalSit and ask We reopened after the long shutdown with half the stools and all the grudges.Two people who had not spoken in a decade shared a bottle.Sit between them and keep the peace.Ramona Ellis2020s · RomanceSit and ask Nights in the nineties were long and the nurses came in at four.We kept a pot of soup behind the bar for exactly them.You look like you could use a bowl.Signe Cole1990s · QuietSit and ask A woman proposed to her girlfriend with a coaster in 2016.The ring was in the pretzel bowl and nobody ate a pretzel for an hour.Tell me how you would have done it.Signe Cole2010s · RomanceSit and ask The softball final was decided over a bar bet in 2007.Both teams still claim the other cheated.Whose side are you on? Choose before the next round.Vanessa Redfern2000s · BrawlSit and ask We hung the team jerseys over the shelf last spring.There is a gap on the left where one is missing.Guess who borrowed it, then ask her.Vanessa Redfern2020s · OpeningSit and ask The jukebox was delivered with a note saying it had a temper.The note was accurate.Put in a coin, and I will tell you what it hates.Samara Quintana1980s · RepairSit and ask Someone swapped the fortieth track for a recording of laughter.The whole bar spent a week looking for who did it.It was me, but I will let you work it out.Samara Quintana2000s · ScandalSit and ask A woman left a single glazed cup on the shelf and never came back.It is a very particular blue, between rain and a bruise.Hold it, and tell me what colour you think it is.Mika Yoshida2010s · QuietSit and ask They say two women met at this bar in 1994 and are still together.I cannot find a record, but the story is too good to drop.Help me decide whether to believe it.Mika Yoshida1990s · RomanceSit and ask I ran the bar for a month in 2015 when Billie was away.The takings went up and nobody could explain it.It was not magic. I will tell you the trick if you buy.Frankie Maldonado2010s · ScandalSit and ask I once left my number on a napkin under three different glasses.Only one of them called.Guess which, and I will say whether you are right.Frankie Maldonado2000s · RomanceSit and ask In the eighties we had a rule about who sat facing the door.It was not safety. It was vanity.Take the seat by the wall and I will tell you why.Lorraine Beaumont1980s · QuietSit and ask An old case came up at the bar last winter, and I did not leave my stool.A woman at the end said nothing, then bought a round.I have not decided whether to ask her.Lorraine Beaumont2020s · ScandalSit and ask The wiring in the cellar was older than I was.I fixed it on a Sunday and left a note nobody could read.Let me read it to you, if you promise not to laugh.Teodora Ames2010s · RepairSit and ask My first night here, I stood in the doorway for twenty minutes.Someone moved her coat off a stool without a word.I would like to do the same for you.Teodora Ames2020s · OpeningSit and ask A dog wandered in during the 2008 final and sat on the owner's foot.Nobody could prove whose dog it was.I took it home. We are not telling anyone.Hadley Gannon2000s · BrawlSit and ask The bar's cat has a chart in my clinic and an entry in the book of regulars.She has been banned twice and reinstated once.Ask me which one she is currently.Hadley Gannon2010s · QuietSit and ask The first open mic here lasted four minutes before the power went.We finished in the dark by the glow of the sign.Give me a topic. Make it a hard one.Simone Achebe2010s · OpeningSit and ask I told a joke about the owner and it went on the chalkboard.It is still up. It is still true.Read it, and decide if you laugh.Simone Achebe2020s · ScandalSit and ask Nineteen eighty-eight, a strike, a ferry stuck on the river and thirty women in the bar.We organised from this stool.Come stand with me. I have a petition.Joan Maddox1980s · BrawlSit and ask A woman asked me to dance on the pool table in 2003.I said I could not, then I did.Ask me about the table. It has a dent.Joan Maddox2000s · RomanceSit and ask Someone leaves a flower on stool seven every Valentine's Day.Nobody has seen who.I have a theory. I will tell it to you slowly.Lydia Yarbrough2010s · RomanceSit and ask We grew basil in the window box for a year, then it died.I buried it in a pot behind the bar with a note.Come and read the note, and pretend you did not.Lydia Yarbrough2020s · QuietSit and ask The kitchen opened in 1997, and the first dish was a mistake.It is still the best seller.Taste it, and tell me what is wrong with it.Margarita Soto1990s · OpeningSit and ask A critic once came in and left without paying.I wrote her a review that I have never sent.Shall I read it to you, with the bad words?Margarita Soto2000s · ScandalSit and ask I am the newest at this bar and I still get lost between the stools.They say a bar is only a bar once it has told you a story twice.Tell me one so I can say I heard it first.Jo Ingram2020s · OpeningSit and ask The roof over the back room leaked for years until I patched it.A regular wrote my name on the beam.Come up the ladder. I will show you where.Jo Ingram2010s · RepairSit and ask