Star by Eliza Witte - HTML preview

17

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The bar was not very big. There were approximately 13-14 tables and a broad board in the middle. It looked roomy, though. Around the board there were additional chairs.

Nothing special, but always full. Jessie was busy, serving the tables when Annie got in.

‘Annie, you are late! Quick, before Louie sees you!’ Jessie scolded her, handing her an apron. Annie could feel the tension of the work there and realized that it wasn’t just the apron that had been handed to her.

‘What, what am I supposed to do now?’

‘You have an order on table 5 - two gins, two vodkas straight. Come on!’

They went together to the bar. Dave, the barman, a nice looking guy, artistically handed the drinks to Annie. Putting them on to the tray, Annie murmured, ‘This is what we call water. Pure. But it smells strange. That must be the way the Martian water smelled before it got frozen, I guess. Strange, they managed to get it here somehow in its liquid state. And why do they put a lemon in the other… water?’

She went to table 5 and started serving the drinks.

‘Excuse me, miss, the gin is for the Ladies!’ The client startled her out of her thoughts.

Annie got so confused that the client decided to put her at ease, ‘Are you new?’ he asked. ‘The gins with the lemon are here. The vodkas are here.’ And he made a gesture showing unequivocally what was expected from Annie to do. She snapped out of it and quickly changed the places of the glasses. On her way back to the bar she was repeating the lesson, ‘So, Gin is the one with the lemon! If the vodka is the water from Mars, then gin should be water from another planet maybe but definitely not from Mars. Definitely not!’

Engrossed in her own thoughts Annie didn’t notice the drunken man that had been eyeing her for awhile. She started when he grabbed her by the hand, ‘Hello, sweetie!

What d’ya think – could we have some fun after you’re done working?’

Annie tried to break free but he wouldn’t let go of her. She tried to remember in despair if she had ever seen him before but as could recall nothing, she simply asked,

‘Do I know you?’

‘No,’ was the answer, ‘But you’ll get to know me sure.’ The drunken man grinned and pulled her close to him. Annie panicked and when he tried to kiss her she screamed. A short, fat middle-aged man came to the rescue out of nowhere. After a bit of arguing he made the drunken man leave and this is how Annie met Louie, the bartender. He looked rather unpleasant but she was grateful to him. Then he just vanished as abruptly as he 18

had arrived. Jessie came to Annie, ‘Annie, Dave’s gone to the bathroom. Please, go behind the bar. We’ve got a coke, two vodkas with orange juice and peanuts.’

Annie went nervously to the bar counter and got behind it. Trying to keep it cool, she started talking to herself so she wouldn’t lose heart, ‘OK, let me start with what I know. I know orange juice.’ She hesitated a bit before she found it in the fridge beside her and she poured it into two glasses. ‘Vodka with orange juice? This is weird. Martian water mixed with the local specialty?’ And she filled up the glasses with water directly from the tap. ‘Coke – they mean coca-cola. I’ve read this. Strange I thought they’d have it only in McDonalds.’

‘Annie, where’s the order?’ Jessie had returned to the bar already.

‘Yes, – right here!’

‘And the peanuts?’

Annie looked around all in distress but Jessie was quick to help her out, ‘There behind you!’

On a lower shelf there were stored all the nuts and crackers. Annie grabbed a packet of peanuts but in the panic she spilled everything when she opened it. At that time Dave returned and Jessie managed to get the order at last. Annie was left absolutely stunned.

She leaned at the bar for a break and before she even realized what she did she drank the nearest glass of water beside her and… she went out of breath. So sudden, so unexpected was that that her face turned all green. Dave saw her, ‘Annie, are you ok?’

‘What… What was this?’ She groaned.

‘Vodka.’

‘I’M BURNING! I’M BURNING! THE MARTIAN WATER HAS BEEN POISONED.’ She choked, a sure sign of poisoning, ‘That’s why… the Boss froze it. He knows his… stuff.’

She would come in and out of breath now.

‘Annie, what are you talking about?’

But Annie’s attention had drifted away. By the bar-door talking with Louie was…

Stuart Reynolds again. ‘I’ve got to get used to this,’ she thought but then she noticed that Louie seemed discontent and even angry. He nodded and waved his hands as if they were arguing and then all of a sudden Stuart left. Annie tried to get Jessie but Jessie was busy at the table she had just served Annie’s order. In fact a scandal had broken out and Jessie was embroiled in an argument with a client, who insisted she had tasted the drink she served. Although still out of breath, Annie couldn’t just look on. She rushed to interfere, ‘Excuse me, Sir… I think… I did something wrong. I don’t know what exactly but I’m sorry. I’m new here.’

‘Please, accept one from the house!’ Jessie added and put on the bribing smile.

Annie also joined in. The client just waved his hand in an all-forgiving gesture but on their 19

way to the bar Jessie was furious, ‘What’s the matter with you, Annie? Can’t you read? At least everything here is like in a pharmacy. Each bottle has a label on it, for God’s sake.

This is a bar and we serve alcohol here, just for your information.’

Annie was impressed, ‘ So, what I drank wasn’t poisonous, then. This is alcohol, Jessie, isn’t it? The alcohol has been in the chemical composition of substances for eons.

The Earthlings call it a spirit. So now that I’ve drunk it my spirit will be just free and happy instead of poisoned. Right, Jessie, eh?’

‘So now you drink during working hours?’ Jessie got even angrier. Dave shouted over the bar, ‘Annie, clean up table 8, please! It’s free.’

Annie went to pick up the dirty glasses but before she finished a noisy company of guys took this very same table.

‘Three times whisky on the rocks and a beer, please.’

Annie just sighed and walked back to the bar thinking how nobody consumed earth water anymore. Shame because the Boss spent a whole day creating it. She observed this time closely the labels of the drinks, while Dave poured, estimating the proximity of the time she’d need to learn them all based on the division by 80 as it seemed to her this was the number of the bottles. She wondered, however, how the light minute as a universal measure applied to the Earth minute as everybody knew that humans were the most opinionated in the entire Universe. They had invented the Earth minute for their purposes only. That the conversion to the real measure was practically impossible to be made didn’t really matter to them. Louie snapped her out of her thoughts, again appearing out of nowhere, ‘Annie, what’s going on here? Will you step in my office for a moment? Jessie will handle all the rest.’

And he led her to a side door accessible only for the staff. Louie’s office was a small and very dirty room full of ashtrays. Before he even sat behind his desk he started his speech, ‘They complain! What’s the matter with you? What kinda drink did you offer? And what comes next – one from the house! I don’t dig money, you see? This booze costs something. You have no idea how costly it is to run this bar! I know that the drunken guy upset you but…’

Annie didn’t quite know how to behave in front of this short, dark man who puffed his cigarette as he spoke with her. However, somewhere deep inside she knew he was somewhat like the Boss to this tiny misshapen apology for a galaxy station - the bar. So she stood there quite serious, full of remorse and respect just nodding all the time, ‘Yes, Sir! Yes, Sir!’

It didn’t take Louie long to placate. Flattered, he got vain as a peacock and hurried to whitewash the things, ‘You, you are a good girl. I know you’re a good girl but I don’t want this to happen again!’