“Usually, we split the bar down the middle and each take half of the customers,” Tammy explained. “But if we know someone who is sitting on the other side, or there’s a large group sitting together in the middle, we’ll swap and just figure it out as the night goes on.”
That seemed simple enough, though I doubted anyone would actually come to visit me here and request to sit on my side. Perhaps Ruthie, but she also was very close to Tammy.
“Now, I know you mostly wanna do this to chat with people and build up your English, and that’s fine, but some people don’t wanna talk,” Tammy said, her voice taking a more somber tone. “Some of these people come in here to drink their problems away or just get away from it all, so if they just wanna sit there, let ’em be.”
I understood that more than Tammy could possibly know. I was better now, but I had gone through a dark phase in my life too, so I understood the need for quiet and solitude. I, too, had spent several nights a week at a bar, drinking my sorrows away for nearly a year before a job opportunity in the States changed the course of my life.
“Now, with that said, you’ve also got some talkers,” Tammy said, breaking me out of my inner thoughts. “Eddie and Hank are regulars and will tell you everything you never wanted to know about their entire lives. I know more about Eddie’s colonoscopy than his wife probably does.”
She said that last part with a shiver, indicating this was not something she was excited to know about.
“Just so I can avoid the topic too, what exactly is a coluh…colosc…whatever you just said?” I asked her, knowing a somewhat similar word in Swedish, but I doubted that was what she meant.
She stared at me for a moment and then threw her head back and laughed. “Part of me doesn’t want to tell you just so Eddie can fill you in and you learn all about it along the way. But the nice part of me doesn’t want to be that mean to you. Plus, you’d likely quit the very next day on me.”
This was sounding worse by the minute.
My fears were confirmed a few moments later as Tammy gave me a basic rundown of what a colonoscopy was—a word that was now forever singed into my brain in the worst possible way.
Yes, I knew what they were, and yes, the somewhat similar Swedish word was exactly what this translated to, but no one needed to talk about this in public. Especially not at the level of detail that it sounded like Eddie gave to Tammy.
Thankfully, we moved to safer topics—restocking the bar and how to refill a keg. Tammy gave me the lowdown for the next hour before she had to actually begin to get ready for the place to open for lunch. She told me to come back the next two days for training shifts, and depending on how well that went, I might get my first real shift on Monday night.
I spent the next few hours finishing up an older project for a skip that Vince was working to bring in. Vince’s dad had been a bounty hunter for years and then taught Vince everything he knew. Vince wasn’t a full-time bounty hunter, but any time he or one of the other guys got wind of a simple bail skipper, he would go for it because it was easy money for the security company.
By two thirty, I was in my car and on my way to Scandinavian Sweets. It was odd how much I was looking forward to goingback there. I chose not to look too deeply into that, but rather just enjoy the moment for what it was.
