Can’t you see a jaguar walks among you through your petty lives
Drinks with Gail S. We can’t decide where to go and then choose the pub with the most ridiculous-sounding name, which is the Lionheart. What this is supposed to represent, I don’t know, but at least the spurious student population is not around for one more week and so we can hang out in there and have a beer on a weeknight without too much fear of aesthetic disappointment. The guy working at the bar seems somewhat chagrinned to see us come in, interrupting what are apparently the very important affairs of presiding over an empty pub. He takes our drink orders and we laugh at the “bad vibes.” There’s something about this guy which seems highly resonant of high school ass-whippings and verbal abuse, having narrowly escaped the black trench coat and rifle and ended up here instead, to vibe out lowly patronage from his very important throne. He pumps the jukebox while Gail and I relate. We only see each other once every two months and so I have to catch her up on my Plan, which involves some sort of exodus. I tell her how bored I am, and then find myself bored with telling people this same thing. I’m old enough to understand the nature of repetition and don’t want to become one of those people. But Gail is nice enough to listen sincerely, as though she actually cares, and I am thankful for that. Momentarily we are distracted by the barman again, who is rump-shaking to his latest selection from the jukebox, which sends Gail totally over the edge. I have seen her entertained for hours on end with cosmic minutia, and so this is currency of the greatest value to her, a real bright star. When he disappears to smoke a cigarette, we look at the book he has left behind on the bar, which is Imajica: The Reconciliation, a fantasy novel. We have a good laugh at this, and being the jerks we are Gail flips the marker, losing our protagonist's page in the book, which I can’t help but feel some amount of compassion for. And therein is revealed the nature of the lion’s heart: It’s a strong heart, but an historically feeling one, which is often complexified with the consumption of alcohol.