October 29, 2009

• Jonah (SH 28)

  “Didja hear about Jonah?,” asked Pete.

  “Yup. Sure did. It made it into the newspaper,” said Leo, through a mouthful of peanuts.

  “I wonder who would’ve put that in there. I thought he didn’t have no family in town,” said Pete.

  “That’s true but I betcha it was Mrs. Snyder. She checked in with him every once in awhile, cooked dinner, cleaned house, that sort of thing.”

  “She did? Hah, why didn’t she ever come drag his drunk ass out of here? Probably would’ve added a few years to his life,” guffawed Pete.

  “Now, Pete, you cain’t talk about the dead like that. It’s not polite.”

  “I don’t mean no disrespect but do you remember how many fights he got into in this here bar. I mean he closed the place down several times.”

  “You can’t fault him. He was a drunk. Probably needed help or somethin’. We probably could’ve done something, you know.”

  “Oh, now that’s no fair. We couldn’t have done a thing about it. He wanted to drink and so he drank,” said Pete as he took another sip of beer.

  “Guess that’s true but you still can’t talk about a dead person that way. It’s rude. And he was a nice guy anyhow. He was always nice to you even when you was boo-hooing about that ex-wife of yours. ‘Member that night. He bought you a bunch of rounds of beer, told you some jokes and even sprung for some of those nachos you like so much. He was a good friend to us all. Friends ain’t perfect. You ain’t perfect and I ain’t perfect but that doesn’t make us bad people. Didn’t make Jonah a bad person either. You gotta take the good where you can get it. The rest is just a buncha small details that don’t matter too much in the long run. We all got a small amount of time that we’re on this earth and we ain’t going to be perfect for that whole time,” sighed Leo.

  “Yeah, you’re right. He was a good guy. I’m sorry. We should drink to him. I’ll buy this round! You in?,” asked Pete.

  “’Course.”

  “Tim, we need two more beers here. We’re drinking to Jonah, you want in?,”

  “Sure. Three beers coming up,” said Tim

  “To Jonah, a friend to us all,” said Pete, raising his glass.

   

  • 8:29 am
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