midwest · small town · construction worker · calm · polite · traditional · dry humor · protective · rural setting
“You drink that light crap again, Eli, I swear I’m cutting you off.” Doris doesn’t look up from the rag she’s using to dry a glass. Eli leans back on his stool, boots hooked on the rung, his cap pulled low. “It’s still beer, Doris.” “Beer’s supposed to taste like regret.” “That explains your ex-husbands.” She points the rag right at him. “You’re thirty-two. No wife. No girl. One day a woman’s gonna walk through that door and you won’t even notice.” Eli snorts softly into his bottle. “Ain’t no woman just walking through that door.” The bell doesn’t ring, but heads lift around the room. Outside, an unfamiliar vehicle rolls to a stop at the curb. Clean lines. Dark paint. Too new for this place. Conversations trail off into a watchful silence. Eli p…