Читать книгу Bar «Free drinks for your souls» - - Страница 5

Overcoming weakness in his legs, Louis tore his back from the pine tree, where he had been sitting for the fifth hour. All this time, his mind was listening against its own will to drunken voices coming from a damned diner filled with dozens of brainless drunks. They weren’t interested in anything other than drinking. All of them drank themselves to such an extent that in their appearance, as well as in their behavior, there will soon be nothing left that could even remotely resemble a person.

Louis reluctantly returned to… His steps broke off on the outskirts of the terrace. The lady was still standing there, from whom Louis heard a defiant answer to his question. He approached her again, and this time he had completely different questions in his head.

– Sorry.

– Yes?

After a long pause, Louis said what he felt was more necessary for this middle-aged woman not to refuse to associate with him:

– I want to apologize if I offended you in any way. I… I…

– No. It’s you who excuse me.

This answer surprised Louis.

The stranger continued:

– I should have guessed right away that you were here for the first day.

By the way, my name is Louis.

The lady held out her hand, which was wearing a pearl bracelet.

– Justine.

Louis kissed her hand.

– Justine, do you mind if I talk to you about what’s going on here?

– What are you. Finding a sober interlocutor here is a rarity. So I will only be glad to your company.

Louis thought for a long time about where to start. Leaning against the railing, like Justine, he began to ask:

– Who is the bartender?

– He serves visitors – Justine answered with a grin.

– No-no. Who is he…

Stumbling, Louis continued after a few seconds.

– …just, you see, out of anger, I threw a glass at him, and he flew through him. Honestly. I saw it with my own eyes.

– I believe. You’re not the first person to throw a glass at Albert. But everyone who tries to do this immediately gets scared when they see all these mystical tricks.

– Fine. Where is he from?

– Nobody knows. However, as well as where this bar is located.

– What do you have in mind? Louis was surprised. Are we not in France?

– Well, we are French. I guess Albert is also, well, somewhat French, and speaks the same language with all customers, so that over time, all visitors begin to understand each other. And in this sense, we are lucky. But there are many who are from other lands. And they’ve never been to France. They also stumbled upon this establishment in some deserted place late in the evening, and the next morning they have already become guests of this establishment, which does not stand in one place. There are Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Greeks, Dutch, Flemings, Germans, Scandinavians, Persians. There is no one among the guests.

Immediately, Louis asked the following question:

– I noticed that no one orders food. Everyone drinks, but no one eats. What is the reason?

– This is another feature of the bar. Albert’s place is very mysterious. There is something here that saves a person from hunger and disease. You can drink as much as you want and you won’t experience any problems from it. Even with a hangover in the morning, no one encounters here.

Louis was now asking questions indiscriminately one after another.

– Here all drinks are paid and increase… um…

– Credit – suggested Justine.

– Yes, credit. This is true?

– Yes.

– But if it makes it impossible for them to leave here, why are they drinking more?» Don’t they want to see their home as soon as possible?

– Soon you will know something about this place. And then, perhaps, you also want to increase your debt to the institution.

– But I do not why.

– Well, at least because for some this place eventually turns into a real paradise. You drink all you want and you can stay here for all eternity. No one will judge you for drinking from morning to evening.

– And you? You obviously don’t intend to stay here, do you? And that’s why you don’t drink. It is so?

– Maybe. However, I myself don’t know what I want yet – Justine answered with a heavy sigh.

– And how did you get here?

– That day my husband and I went to our estate near Paris. A few years earlier, we had lost our only child. Not without a tremble in her voice, Justine continued: «My boy was only eight. I could not decide to have another one, because I was afraid that we would lose him too. For this, my husband hated me and began to change. He walked to the fullest, dragging one or the other into bed. Justine said these words with some anger. – In a word, he behaved like a male, who only has to see a bitch, as he immediately rushes to mate. And on the day when we arrived at our estate, I went to the stable. I didn’t even get to cross the threshold. He was fucking a servant right in the hay, who moaned like a street whore. Then she looked at Louis. – He despised me so much that he did not disdain to have intercourse even with the servants. This was the last straw. Hate was eating me up from the inside. I went where my eyes look. It must have been two hours, at least. I went out to some hill where I had never been before. There was a bar there. Albert was very polite.

– And how much did you owe when you found out about everything?

This was followed by unhealthy laughter from Justine.

– The funny thing is that I never drank anything but wine of many years of aging. I drank one of the most expensive wines all evening and thought about how I would return, pack my things and leave this bastard. The wine was so expensive that in a couple of hours my credit grew to 52 days. And when I realized that there was nowhere to go, I began to drink in order to indulge in oblivion and not think about it. But it only made things worse. Credit grew with every glass. I owe the establishment 632 days.

– And how much is left? Louis asked carefully.

– I haven’t checked with Albert for a long time. But somewhere a couple of hundred or so.

After a short pause, Justine asked:

– And you, dear Louis?

He spoke in detail about his bitter loss prior to arriving at the bar. Having told about everything, he seemed to feel some kind of lightness and serenity fill his chest. As soon as he poured out his soul, the feeling of grief noticeably subsided.

– O-oh. Louis, I’m so sorry. My condolences.

So he met a very pleasant and sociable Frenchwoman, who had been a guest of the bar for a year and a half.

Louis was depressed. He did not want to talk to anyone and sat in his room. Just like that, waiting for the third day to come to an end, the sun will disappear behind the horizon and he will be able to leave the walls of the mysterious institution.

As time went. When a person is waiting for something, not a second escapes his attention. Sometimes time mocks a person, and patience strikes with its cruelty, not wanting to part with its prisoner and sarcastically waiting for a specific moment to come.

Louis stood in front of the window, counting down the moments before a small orange speck in the distance disappeared from view. Gradually the waiting became too tedious for him. It becomes so hard to wait when you realize how every second evaporates, and every moment passes like a hopeless eternity.

The solar disk was in no hurry to go beyond the horizon. Louis lay down on the soft bed and fell asleep.

When Louis woke up, it was already completely dark outside the window, and the bar was deserted. He went downstairs and went to the exit, bypassing the bar.

Albert wiped the glasses, peering into their transparency every couple of seconds. He called out to Louis as he passed in front of him.

– Louie?

He timidly turned around to face the bartender.

– Let me talk to you about something before you leave. It does not take a lot of time.

– Yes, of course, Louis said softly.

– Sit down – Albert pointed to a chair in front of the counter.

He threw a snow-white towel over his shoulder, placed his hands on the edges of the counter and turned to Louis:

– Before you want to leave, I would like you to know what you may need most right now. I’m sure Justine has told you a lot about what’s going on here. But I want you to know the main thing. Those three days that you spent here – no one took them away from you. There, in the outside world, those three days had indeed passed. But here life stops. During this time, you have not grown old at all. Time in my institution has no power over people and it stops for those who want to spend a day, a month, a year here. Nothing could be worse than losing your wife and children. Don’t ask me how I know everything. Just listen. Now you will return home, you will wake up with chest pain, and you will fall asleep with it. And the days you’ve been given will melt away. Your soul is filled with grief. She is full of grief. But this grief is too strong. And this feeling will not allow you to return to the world in which you lived before the tragedy seized your house. Get it right, Louis…