Chapter 7

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Chapter 7: Five Redux

That night, Mr. Pitor Pibb sat at the Salinity Serenity, a pub whose name he could only guess the author had taken at random from the S section of a dictionary. The floor had remained sticky, unmopped since a time he could not remember, and the wooden stools chipped and falling apart. The occasional crack of the cue ball breaking into the triangle of balls that were once bright and colorful reminded him only of the invisible whip that cracked over the meaningless grind of his life.

The bar itself which he sat leaning against was hardly visible. The light from the few lamps hanging above could not reach behind it so that the bar appeared set into the wall, reminding him of the eyes he saw when gazing into the mirror after a sleepless night. The bartender did not talk. He grunted when he was ready to take your order, and made no sound at all when he was tipped. It was perfect.

What came next, however, was not part of the perfection. Pitor had not expected it, especially not tonight. Dr. Peter Pepper opened the door casually and strolled in. "He doesn't understand what he's doing," thought Pitor, "You don't stroll into this bar. You peer inside first to make sure no one you know is there. Then you carefully walk in, with head down and arms hanging limp." Dr. Pepper had ruined Mr. Pibb's night already.

"Pibbsy? You're here again?" Peter said cheerfully. Mr. Pibb sneered. He hated that name, and he hated that Peter came here for fun, for something different. Peter had bested him that afternoon, (to the thunderous applause of many) at the musical instrument showdown in Lansing. "I'm always here," Pibbsy grumbled into his beer.

Peter looked around the room. He couldn't see the bartender, but assumed he was there, and so sat down next to Pibbsy.

A grunt across the bar startled Peter. "I'll take a Glenlivet rocks." He felt the bartender move away and heard what he guessed was the bartender blowing caked up dust off of the bottle. Pibbsy didn't move. Peter glanced at him before taking another look around the bar. On the wall opposite the bar there was a television hanging high against the corner of another wall that jutted out in the middle, separating the room into two. A few tables lay in the section with the TV while two pool tables stood poorly lit in the other.

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