Fun
The first thing Al noticed was she ordered a shot of rotgut, then said, “Make it two. In two different shot glasses. Not a double.” Shane, the barman, said, “You’re the boss,” and went to get them. Al hollered down to her, “I like a woman with refined tastes.”
“Leave me the fuck alone,” she said.
Al looked at Shane, bringing her drinks, one glass pinched in each hand. He held them like he was a giant-sized farmer and the shot glasses were buckets of milk fresh from the cow. He’d filled them to the rims. The whiskey trembled in little, copper-colored domes.
“There’s a fun girl,” Al said, “Why do you let these fun people in here, Shane? It’s too much fun.”
“Anybody can drink here,” Shane said, “You too, Al.”
“But I ain’t any fun,” Al said, “I’m deadly serious. I’m serious as a rattle snake.”
Shane set the drinks on the bar in front of the woman. She laid a few bills on the bar, but Shane left them. The woman threw back the first drink, then said, “Water.” Shane poured her a glass of ice water and she scooped out a cube and held it against her eye.
Al stared, smiled. “What a show,” he said, “It’s all too much fun.”
Paul Luikart is the author of the short story collections Animal Heart (Hyperborea Publishing, 2016), Brief Instructions (Ghostbird Press, 2017), Metropolia (Ghostbird Press, 2021), The Museum of Heartache (Pski’s Porch Publishing, 2021), The Realm of the Dog (J. New Books, 2024 and re-released by Walnut Street Publishing, 2026), Cult Life (Tenpenny Books, 2024), Mercy (Walnut Street Publishing, 2025), and Nothing Is Haunted Everything Is (Roadside Press, forthcoming in 2027.) He serves as an adjunct professor of fiction writing at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. He and his family live in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
