Mary Anne Rose - Chapter 7: Back At ‘75th & Amsterdam’
7. Back At ‘75th & Amsterdam’
Almost a week later, the same man who passed the story to the bartender came back to ‘75th & Amsterdam’. It was shortly past 3:00 pm Saturday. The bar was not empty but there weren’t that many customers; though it was weekend, it was well over the lunch time and also a little too early to start having drinks. The bartender, Kristina, was supposedly working, but she didn’t have to pay a lot of attention to customers; they were just relaxing this afternoon and drinks and foods were already served. He assumed that she finished reading the story by now, so, as he approached her, he asked, “What did you think?” She apparently expected the question and answered, “It’s cute.”
”Ok.”
”The guy in the story …, it’s you, right?” said her as if she were chuckling.
”Yes, it is me.”
”How much of this is based on the real life event?” asked she, but as he was about to answer the question, she continued, ”I’ll take a guess. You met this girl a while back, right? But you don’t know what happened to her. So, up to the point you left her, that’s more or less based on what actually happened. The rest is based on your imagination.”
”That sounds about right,” smiled he.
”It’s a cute story.”
”The idea is this. I met her and spent a few days with her, but I’m kind of naïve so I’d like to think romantically, right? So, you know, I made it into this story.”
”Was she cute?”
”She was.”
”But not as cute as you,” announced he rather coolly.
”What’s her name?”
”Mary Anne Rose.”
”That’s a nice name.” She paused for a second and then asked, ”Do you have other questions?”
”About what you thought about this story?”
”Yeah.”
”Hah, not, really. I just wanted to know what you thought about it in general.”
”Ok. Do you want to show it to Grey?”
He put his index finger on his mouth as if he weren’t sure about it but said, “Yeah”. But he repeated and pronounced the same word clearly as if he decided that that’s what he was going to do. He continued, ”We’ll, Grey and I will, go catch a movie tonight and, uh, …”
”Stop by. I’m working here tonight.”
”Ok.”
”Having any drinks?”
”It’s only three in the afternoon.”
”It’s Saturday.”
”Ok … I’ll take Cider.”
As he drank the cider, he exchanged a few more words with her. And then, he left.
- - - - - - - - -
He and his friend, Grey, walked into the same place at around 9:00 pm. They just finished watching a movie and walked up here from the movie theater. There was some crowd at this hour, but they found two chairs at the bar and occupied them. Kristina was busy working but she found them and came to say hi and take orders.
”Hey, what’s up? What’re you having?”
”Guinness … and …,” he looked at Grey.
”I’ll Cider.”
”Are you having dinner tonight?” asked she.
”We’ll order something later,” said he, and as she went to fetch drinks for them, he started talking to Grey. ”Here’s the story I was telling you about. Kristina read it already, so you’re not the first reader, but I hope you don’t mind that.”
”No, no, I don’t mind that at all.”
”I wanted to know what she thought about it.” As Grey flipped a few pages, he continued, “I’m not a very social person, but I think that life, in the end, is about meeting people. It seems like this is a strange thing for me to say but, you know, I really think that.”
“Go on,” urged his friend.
”And there are romantic encounters here and there, right? And, you know, some encounters are … spontaneous, to describe nicely, and playful.”
”Right …,” asserted his listener.
”But when you look back those encounters, especially, ones you had when you were much younger, you’d like to believe that they were romantic encounters. I know that this has a lot to do with being young and naïve, but, you know, I think that this kind of naiveté gives you the sense of significance, meaning, in life.”
“Ok …”
”The idea of this story is to capture that.”
Grey paused for a second and said, “Let me read this, ok?”
”Are you reading this right now?”
”Yeah, why not? It’s not like I’m doing anything.”
She came back to them with their drinks; they ordered calamari because they figured that they’d be here for a little while and they should get an appetizer instead of ordering dinner right away. As they finished their first drinks and the food, they ordered another round of same drinks and dinner.
”Hey, it’s not bad.”
”Really?” asked her rather skeptically.
”Yeah. It’s not bad. Did you see this girl after you came back? Did you get in tough with her?”
”She wrote down her name and address on a piece of paper and gave it to me, but I lost it somewhere. I seem to remember that I sent a postcard to her, but … either it’s just how I’d like remember but I never sent any postcards, it didn’t reach here or she didn’t bother to write back to me.”
”But you still like her.”
”Yeah, I guess so. That sounds rather … silly, but I guess the answer is yes.” Then, there was a long pause. When they were about to finish the second round of drinks, Grey asked, “Are you going to the club in Upper East Side?” Their mutual friends and acquaintances were going to a certain club on Upper East Side; they both knew that, so he asked him.
”No, I don’t think so. I’m not really interested in meeting them tonight.”
”Ok. I’m going and I think I’m heading there after I finish this drink.”
”That’s fine.”
They both finished their drinks, paid the bill, exchanged a few words with Kristina and left. As they exited the bar, the man who wrote the short story asked his friend, “How you gonna get there?”
”I think I’ll take a cab.”
”Ok.”
In a few minutes, he found a cab, got in and left for Upper East Side.
