Bartender Read Online Free PDF Page A

you didn’t like dudes or whatever you’d be settled down.”
    Saim squints. “Yeahhh...”
    “Well, why aren’t you Muslim anymore?”
    Saim starts: “That’s—” He thinks about his old man kicking the shit out of him and his mom when he was a kid. It being totally okay as far as cultural norms go in hardline Muslim communities. And his mom just taking it, like a “good woman.” The thought still makes him sick. “It’s a long story, man. But I wanted freedom.”
    “Sucked in Afghanistan, huh?”
    “It was the suck.”
    “So the family moves here and then what?”
    “Then everything’s different cuz, hey, Merica. We got here when I was seven, eight-ish. And my dad was still a dick, but I don’t think he felt like he could get away with what he could in Afghanistan.”
    “Y’all started getting integrated and whatnot.”
    “Yeah. I got older and I realized the idea of a god who was gonna spank me for x,y,z and thinking men are more attractive than women is bullshit. So I bailed. Second I turned eighteen my ass was out the door . I could finally be who I wanted.”
    “I’ll drink to that.”
    Joe and Saim clink glasses. Toss some whiskey down their throats.
    Saim says, “What about you?”
    Joe says, “Mine’s boring. Nothin bad happened to me. My parents are good folks. I’m a Kentucky boy so it wasn’t weird or nothin that I wanted to get into law enforcement. Just didn’t wanna to do it there . So I moved and here I am. Killing bad guys in the Big Apple.”
    “Hey man, nothin wrong with that.”
    They toast again. Drink.
    Joe says, “What made you wanna be a cop?”
    Saim considers it. Says, “A lot of it was cuz of how bad our dad treated us. I figured I could help kids. Help families. Put the bad guys away. Or at least scare the shit out of em. And I didn’t like this fuckin idea that gay dudes couldn’t be... dudes.”
    “Sure. Honorable.”
    “Second reason is gonna sound dumb as hell though.” Saim points to his big poster of the film TOMBSTONE.
    Joe chuckles. “Kurt Russell made you wanna be a cop.”
    “Man, I saw that movie years ago and it just got into my head. All that awesome righteous anger from the good guys. Russell and Val Kilmer. All those crazy one-liners. ‘You called down the thunder, well now you got it!’ Just awesome.”
    “Who even has time to think up that stuff when you’re shooting people?”
    “Doesn’t matter, man. It’s just the chill it gives you.”
    Joe shrugs. “So when we go to sleep, you wanna be the big spoon or the little spoon?”
    “Keep your ass on the couch.”

10.
     
    Kieron says, “C’mon, bud. We gotta get ready to go.”
    It’s always like this. Aaron doesn’t wanna leave. He wants to keep working on his project. Whatever project that might be. Usually LEGOs. Sometimes video games. But what the kid’s doing takes priority in his little mind.
    Aaron says, “I don’t want to.”
    Kieron says, “Well you got to.”
    So Kieron finds himself trying to fit Aaron’s shirt on. One arm at a time. While the kid fidgets and keeps trying to build whatever it is he’s building. The whole time Kieron’s thinking: Christ, I need to get this shit done. I don’t have the time right now.
    Frustrated but Kieron can’t show it. If he does, he’ll fuck up his already-awkward relationship with his son.
    He just needs to be cool. Think about the old lady’s jewels.
    Shit’ll get easier with some extra cash.
     
    ***
    Kieron and Aaron walk down the street, hand in hand. Kieron stops to get a cup of not-entirely-awful coffee from the cart vendor on his block. Same guy he’s seen almost daily for years. But Kieron can’t remember his name. They grunt the typical bullshit and nod at each other till their time together is over.
    It only takes Aaron a block and a half to get annoyed and distracted. Then he’s straining against his dad’s hands. Staring up at the sky. Cramming a finger in his nose.
    Kieron picks the boy up and sets him on