On Behalf Of

Hip hop bleached by a gang of LA producers tip toed through the speakers in the corner of the bar. Kev slouched on a stool next to the register surfing Spotify, powerless. The teenagers playing pool upstairs had been feeding the jukebox for hours and were now repeating tracks. Kev trawled through the history of guitar music, pausing only to pour a new Guinness for one of the wizened gentlemen who were a feature of the pub at midday.

I sat largely unnoticed, my pockets hanging low with my burden. I say largely unnoticed; Kev knew I was there and had tired of my company. The other patrons were suspicious of my youth. They needn't be. My age was deceptive and time was surely on their side, not mine.

I was under instruction to wait here each day for a week and it would come. I was now into my third week; sat in the same seat from eleven in the morning until one in the morning, only now I began the day with a beer rather than waiting until seven, or six or four.

Sometimes I forgot for hours what I was doing there. Kev had given up asking, figuring my story would follow the usual pattern. It didn't. I thought it didn't. I just had to wait and when the time came I would have to play it by ear.

In the evenings the place got busier. I would drink with some people I knew, declining the occasional game of pool. I suppose they were friends and I hoped they wouldn't be here when the time came.

They weren't. It was just gone eleven and Kev was downstairs sorting out the barrels. The other day drinkers weren't in yet. I never expected it to happen like it did. I don't know what I expected. In truth I don't know what really happened. The stool sank back into the floor and the walls warped around me. Dragged by my pockets deeper through wood and stone I must have imagined Kev's voice as I passed through the cellar. The heat of the earth comforted me even as its weight destroyed me. At that moment, and only at that moment, I would never have made the deal but it passed and resignation returned. The temperature soared and no more could be said.