2019-06-11 - In The Same Boat

Monday nights are not the busiest of evenings at the Pourhouse, but there are still a number of folk seated up at the bar of the popular watering hole. Among them is a newcomer to town, probably evidenced by the fact that he sits on his own toward the end of the bar and doesn't seem to know anyone, nor does anyone seem to know or greet him as they come and go. He has a pint in front of him, some pale colored beer, and taps a message or two into his phone.

Lyric isn't a newcomer but she's probably not one of the more prominent members of the townfolks. When she comes in a few people look up but no greetings are called out to her. There are a few people at the bar but among them are a few faces that she wants to avoid, so it's down towards the end nearer the new face that she seats herself and promptly rests her elbows straight down on the counter to rest her chin on both hands as they cradle it there. On the question of what she'd like to order, she responds something about the cheapest. After bringing her a glass of whatever it is they don't give it away immediately, just clear their throat and hold out a hand. With an eyeroll she slides the money across and takes the drink. "Gosh, stiff them once and suddenly its a federal offense or something. Besides, I paid for that!" The last of it called to the bartender who ignores it.

Cole glances over at Lyric as she sits down at the bar and a quick smile is offered before the bartender shows up to take her order. He tucks the phone away, apparently done with whatever conversation that he was having, brows raising just a little bit as she calls out after the bartender, amusement touching his expression. His own pint is lifted and he takes a swallow from it before returning to people watching those who come and go nearby.

Catching the smile Lyric returns one and uses it to try and strike up a conversation. The usual opener. "Hi, are you from around here?" She holds her drink and takes a sip after voicing the question. "I'm Lyric," she adds as an afterthought.

Cole shakes his head when she asks if he's from around here, "No, I just got here a couple of weeks ago." He takes a sip from his own drink and then says, "Cole. Still kind of getting the lay of the land around here. People seem friendly enough. I managed to find some work just talking to some folks at the coffee shop Downtown."

"Oh, I've worked plenty of places in this town. I can't find something I like good enough to keep doing it though." Lyric reaches for a napkin and starts folding it in different shapes as she considers him. "I've lived here all my life. Funny though, some people are coming in while some of us are trying so hard to get out."

"Isn't that the way it is everywhere, though? People who have lived in a place being ready to move on? People who haven't been there before wanting to get in? Doesn't really seem where the place is," Cole says as he taps his fingertips against the side of his glass. He lifts it then and takes another swallow. "There's something about this place, though. I don't know. It's different. I'm not sure how. I just sort of knew that I had to come here. Maybe sometime I'll figure out why."

So Lyric listens and sort of looks around a little as she does, her attention span smaller than usual maybe. Until he brings her focus right back to him and she centers right there, looking at him closely. "It's probably for the same reason I can't ever leave. I have to be here and I kinda see it in you that maybe you have to be also."

Cole doesn't seem put off by the short attention span, just falling quiet after a moment or two, and drinking his beer, content to people watch as well. Though when her attention focuses back on him he pauses, glass halfway to his lips, then sets it back down again. "You can see it?" That seems to surprise him. Back home, no one else had been able to see or sense it.

A head bob reassures him that indeed, Lyric can very much see it. It's almost eager in delivery and she scoots to the edge of her bar seat to be closer to him where she drops her voice, leaning in, her head almost touching his. "All my life. There's a lot in this town that can. Someday, if you can't already, you'll realize that it draws us together in a way. And you'll be able to see others like us all on your own." Lyric finishes quietly before sitting up and glancing over to a darker corner of the room before dropping her eyes and nodding almost imperceptibly.

Cole studies her closely, his gaze flickering over her features, watching as she moves closer, brows knitting just a little bit. "I can see it in you, too. I've seen it in a couple of people here, but I wasn't entirely sure if it was the same thing." It's a quiet admission, whens he leans in, his voice also dropped low. "It's why I came here," he admits. "I felt like I had to be here. I started having dreams about this place." He follows her glance toward the darker portion of the room, but seeing nothing there, glances back toward her questioningly.

"Lizzy." Lyric explains. Well, it's really not an explanation, but it's a name she gives. "But she doesn't like when I tell people about her. I've known her since I was really young." It's about as good as it gets by way of an explanation finally. "I am glad you can see others like you. Some will believe you, some won't, so I only talk about it with people who can see it." Wrapping her hands around her beer she takes a drink of it then sort of talks into the glass. "The dreams." It echoes ominously into the glass and when she lifts her eyes to him they have a haunted look in them. "Were they really bad?" she asks starkly.

"Lizzy," Cole repeats, and then nods a bit to himself. He takes another swig from his beer and studies a spot on the bar as he nods in understanding about only talking to others who can see what they can see. It's hard to explain it to those who don't. "There were demons," he says, "Metaphorical and literal demons." His expression turns a bit grim then as he studies his hands. "It was, is.. a constant struggle, not to try and numb them away."

Hearing someone else say Lizzy's name struck Lyric as odd and for a moment she just studies Cole. Her arm comes to rest on the bar again and she rests her chin on the heel of her hand as she ponders that. Her hand slowly sneaks back down to her lap in a fist, clasping the other hand when he mentions the demons in the dreams. "There are really scary shadow people. And if they kill you in your dreams, you're still dead when you don't wake up from them." What else could be more scary? "I'd rather numb them away."

"There are good things too, though," Cole says. "I can help people, heal them, ease their pain and injuries, and try to make them feel better. I have to believe that there's a reason for the darkness, and that it's worth overcoming it to do something good, something light." He takes a deep breath and then lets it out slowly, "I have to believe there's some kind of reason for all of this happening." He nods, and glances over toward her, "I've felt that kind of dread, like there was something watching."

"There probably is something watching. I can't heal things but I can move things." Lyric shudders, "But I don't do it because if you do it too much the bad men come. The dark men." Her hands remain on her lap sort of clenched together. "Maybe you're supposed to come and help fight the darkness. Or heal those with the same thing you have. We have." Finally, she reaches for the beer and takes another drink. "Do you have a house here and everything already?"

Cole nods his head and says, "I get the sense that there are people who can do the things that I do, and others that do different things. There's a sort of different.. flavor.. to the way that they.. shimmer." He folds his arms and rests them on the bar top, leaning forward against them, studying her. "Maybe. Fighting against the darkness is how I eventually found my way here. Maybe that's my calling somehow." He shakes his head and says, "I'm staying at a motel right now."

"I guess everyone is kind of different. Maybe we could ask some of the others. I wish we could all have a big meeting but how do you plan for or announce something like that? Glimmery people come to this place at this time and let's talk?" Lyric giggles softly, sounding slightly off her rocker but really just teasing. As he leans forward she faces him more, keeping the conversation private. "Motels are expensive, but so are homes. I have a trailer I'm living in. It's got a second bedroom. I could rent it to you. Or we could share the rent if you wanted? And if you ever want company, like your boyfriend or girlfriend, you could have anyone over."

Cole chuckles at that and says, "Yeah, somehow I don't think that would work out so well, though I guess you could find a few others and, I don't know, just by word of mouth, get folks together to talk about stuff. I'm not sure I"m ready for that kind of organization just yet. I'm still sort of getting my feet under me." He takes another swig from his beer and finishes it off, setting the glass to one side. The offer of a place to stay seems to surprise him a little. "You sure you want some random stranger you met at a bar staying in your spare room? I mean.. I could be a crazy axe murderer for all you know."

"Yeah, I guess we could have a small meeting, but I don't want to talk to others about it so much either." When push comes to shove, Lyric realizes he was right. There was just no interest in sharing that part of the weirdness that make up who she was. His suggestion of his possible hobby makes her laugh. "Oh I've faced worse than an axe murderer before I'm pretty sure. Demons are sort of scarier and living alone just seems to make the darkness of the house grow and stretch."

"Yeah, for me, this whole thing is kind of private, at least for now. I don't mind talking to people about it, but I don't want to go having AA meetings, you know? Hi, my name is Cole, and I slip into weird fugues where I fight literal demons," he chuckles and then says in a dull flat voice "Hi, Cole." He shakes his head. "Yeah, let's not do that." He says, "Alright. I'll come by and check out the room. And you can let me know how much you want for rent."

Lips curve at his AA intro and even the robotic sound of the Hi's in return. "I guess it's like that, it seems like it. But in this town at least you fit in." Lyric picks up her beer, a little more relaxed than she was, and she takes a few drinks of it before bobbing her head. After rattling off the address, she looks as if she is contemplating the cost before she offers the price. "It's one third of what I pay, since I have the bigger bedroom." Even if it's not that much bigger!

"Yeah, there is that," Cole says, in regard to fitting in, a little wry twist to his lips. He pulls out his phone and he takes down the address, storing it in google maps so that he can pull it up later to find it. "Alright," he says. "That sounds reasonable. I'll come by tomorrow and check it out, if that's cool? And then I'll let you know. And I don't have a boyfriend right now. I don't really know many people in this town at all, just the couple of folks I met who offered me some work. You don't happen to know if there's a dance studio in town at all, do you?"

Her number follows the address once he has the phone out, giving those digits away also. "In case you can't find it, but it's not really hard to find." Lyric finishes off her beer but doesn't ask for more for now. Though she does look more relaxed than when she came in. "Course you can come by tomorrow and yeah, I don't have a boyfriend or girlfriend either right now, so there'll be no extra company from me right now.That's the thing about living in the same city all my life. Everyone knows me and I know everyone. There's no mystery left." With a cheesy smile she wobbles the glass, spinning it a little so it turns around a couple of circles on the lower edge, not tipping over. "I think there is probably. So you can dance? We should dance a lot at the trailer. I mean if you move in. I like to dance, but not like couples dancing. Like let your hair down crazy dancing." A grin follows.

"I kind of left everyone I knew behind, and I wasn't really seeing anyone before I decided to leave town so, I don't figure anyone's going to be following me here, either," Cole says with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "I've just been kind of dealing with this on my own for a while. It's actually kind of a relief to find someone else who at least knows what I'm talking about." He grins over at her and says, "I was a ballet dancer, in another life.. before all this." The way he says he, he likely means more than just the glimmering. "But I like just crazy livingroom dancing, too."

"I guess that's kind of hard, to leave everyone behind. Mine is the opposite. I stayed here and everyone else left me behind. Well.. my mom did." Lyric shrugs before finding a smile anyway. "You don't have to do things alone now. No pressure, you got me for a friend and we'll just team up against the baddies if we have to." An understanding look is given over to him and she solemnly nods. "Don't ever let anyone stop your dancing, no matter what your favorite kind is. We can even put a mirror and a bar on the wall in the living room if you want. I could possibly learn ballet from watching you. In between the crazy dancing."

"Guess we're both in the same boat from opposite directions, huh?" Cole says with a wry chuckle. He nods then and agrees, "Friends, then." He offers a fist to bump with a grin, and then says, "I don't plan to stop dancing. I still love it. I'll never do it professionally again, and as much as I regret that.. I can't go back to the life that I had, so I need to move forward with the one that I have now. And I can still enjoy it, and I could teach you if you wanted to learn. You know, between bouts of crazy livingroom dancing."

A fist bump is returned from Lyric and she even makes the little explosion at the end of it. "Good, because dancing is important. So is always learning something new. So while you dance, I can learn and we're both keeping our brains working." It's with a grin that she finally gets to her feet. "I will see you tomorrow though and can show you the trailer. We can go from there. I'm a little bit of a cook, but don't get your hopes up too high."

"I make great reservations," Cole tells her with a laugh and he puts some cash down on the bar for his drink and a tip. "I should probably be getting back, myself. Need to get up early in the morning to get some work done. Was nice meeting you, Lyric. I'll shoot you a text tomorrow and can come by to take a look at the trailer."