Carefully Guarded

All day long people had been trickling into the Jolly Joe at a slow but steady speed. Parker was actually intelligent sounding. Every time he actually said “Thank you sir,” I cracked up.

“Hey, Flame. Can you can it,” Parker snapped after one particularly loud laugh that escaped my lips.

“Oh, don’t be a spoil sport! This is the best comedy I’ve seen in forever” Parker scowled and then tossed me a dish rag and pointed from the kitchen to the tables. I got the message so I went in to grab an apron and the big bin. Sighing I starting scrubbing down the stains that Parker’s sloppy customers had put right back on the table. I groaned at a particularly large one. It almost looked like a huge music note. I shook aaway the thought as I started de-staining the table.

“Hey Flame. One last favor?” I groaned.

“What do ya what?” I shot at him.

“Can you get some, ah… water.” I looked up sharply. A man at the bar was downing the alcohol like there was no tomorrow. He was drinking anything that came his way. I nodded and jogged quickly over to the kitchen to grab a cup and fill it with water, leaving my cleaning gear behind on the half-cleaned table.

As the water filled the cup at an agonizingly slow pace I started to actually thing, something the cathartic cleaning had allowed me to escape. I started to think of Will. As soon as the name entered my brain I pushed it forcefully away from me. I shock my head as if to shake it from my head as well when I realized that the glass was on the brink of over flowing, so I hastily jammed the faucet down and I rushed out to Parker, careful not to let the water slop over the edge of the cup due to my shaking hands. Parker accepted the cup with a nod of thanks and returned to making the man fit for the public. I went into a day dream where life wasn’t so mean.

“Flame! Wake up kiddio,” I gave a non-committal grunt as I jerked into conciseness.

“Huh, I’m innocent and you can’t prove it anyway!” I spoke instinctively, before quickly covering my mouth, realizing what I had just said. Parker chuckled.

“You were whimpering. It seemed a little…ah…out of your character so I wanted to make sure you were ok.” I nodded groggily as my eyelids dropped. I snapped them wide open immediately after though. “What time is it?”

“About midnight. When you passed out at ten I figured I would just let you sleep.” I save an uncomfortable nod, a little mad at my self for dozing off like that. I got up and walked slowly over to my make-shift bed and as soon as my face met my pillow I was out.