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BARFLY
Norman, who is just your regular fly, stands at the bar
nursing a tall mug of yellow liquid. He
takes a deep sip from the drink and sets it back down on the bar. The front door to the Begal pops open and three flies buzz
inside. One of them, Morty, slowly
makes his way up the crowded bar, looking left and right until he spots Norman.
Morty joins Norman at the bar, who nudges his way sideways to make space
for him.
"How’s it buzzing, Morty?" Norman asks.
"Not bad, Norman. Boy, do
I need a drink." Morty catches the bartender’s eye. The bartender sidles over.
"What’ll it be?" the bartender asks.
"What do you got on tap?" Morty asks, searching for the drink list on the
mirror behind the bar.
"We got donkey. We got
camel. Oh, and we got something brand new.
It’s called coyote wicked."
"You got any of those micro-pees?"
"Just one," the bartender answers, "Chihuahua."
"That sounds good. Give me
the Chihuahua."
"Coming right up," the bartender goes off to fetch him the brew.
Morty turns to Norm. He
looks worn out and tired. "Boy, what a day," Morty says, "thank God it’s
flyday."
"That’s for sure."
Morty grabs a handful of black crusty balls from a bowl on the bar and
pops them into his mouth. He
immediately spits them out.
"Yecch. This stuff hardly even tastes like crap." The bartender returns with a steaming mug of pee.
"Here you go." Morty takes it.
"Thanks.
And could you get us another bowl. This
stuff doesn't even taste like shit." "No problem," the bartender says and goes off the bar. Morty takes a deep gulp from the steaming yellow liquid,
draining half the glass in one gulp. "Whew.
Disgusting. Makes me want to
puke." "That good, huh?" Norman asks. Morty nods. The
two take sips together. Morty looks around the place. He nods his approval. "Hell
of a place you found here, Norman." "You got to love the Fecal Begal. Like they say, every pooper needs a party." "You can say that again.
But it looks like they’re letting in some pretty young ones?" "Why do you say that?" "Down at the end of the bar. Didn’t I see a grub?" Norman turns, and sure enough, down at the far end of the
bar, away from the front door, is an underage looking grub. "Nah, that’s just Mary," Norman answer.
"She’s plenty old, she’s just a slow developer." The front door of the bar opens and another fly, drunk and
disheveled, stumbles in. Bleary
eyed, with several days growth of beard, the fly has swatches of sticky yellow
fly paper stuck all over him. His
name is Pete, and as he weaves his way up the bar, the other flies make way for
him. Pete reaches Morty and Norman at the bar. "Wow, Pete," Norman says, "what happened to you?
You look like you’ve been hit by a fly swatter." "Hey guys," Pete answers, "you ready to get good and
drunk?" "Looks like you’re well on your way, "Morty says. Pete waves the bartender over. "Give me a shot of Johnny Walker Dead." "You want a chaser with that?" "I’ve got a mighty thirst for some horse pee-how about
some Clysdale?" "You got it, bud." The bartender goes off and Pete’s friends look him over
with alarm. "What happened to you, Pete?" Norman asks. For a second, Pete looks like he’s about to lose it.
His eyes mist up, his throat catches, and he swallows nervously.
Right then the bartender brings his drinks over, and Pete downs the shot
and follows it with the chaser. His
confidence swells. "You want to know what happened? You really want to know what happened?" Both Norm and Morty eagerly nod their heads. "Well, two nights ago I was out late with Betty.
We were at a bar. Now maybe I had too much to drink, and maybe Betty had too
much to drink, because, on our way home, we had a little run in with some
flypaper." To prove his point
Pete pulls at the flypaper stuck to his body, but the sticky yellow paper is
stuck for good. "You know what happens when you drink and fly, Pete,"
Norman says. "Yeah, well, goodbye Betty.
She’s stuck for good. I
barely got out myself." "I guess that makes one less for dinner, huh?" Morty
asks. "That’s right," Norman says, "where are our dinner
reservations tonight, Morty?" "A dead body just turned up in Central Park.
We’ve got reservations at Tavern on the Spleen." Both turn their attention back to Pete, who, with his antenna
just about drooping just down onto the bar, looks mighty depressed. "Come on, Pete, don’t worry. There’ll be others," Norman says. "Yeah, I know, but it’s not just that.
Before I left Betty she said she had something to tell me.
She said she wanted to come clean with me.
And you know what? Betty had
been cheating on me." "No!" Morty says, "with who?" "Who do you think?" "It can’t be. Not
him." "Who else? Assanova." "Damn it! Assanova
gets all the babes," Norman says. "I heard he’s hung like a horsefly." Again, the front door of the place bangs open and the
oversized body of a fly fills the doorway. "Well speak of the devil," Norman says, "look who’s
here." "Assanova," Pete declares and whips around to face the
door. "Just look at him," Norman says, "acting like his shit
stinks." Looking tough, Assanova swaggers up the bar.
As he reaches the three standing at the bar Pete steps out in front of
him, blocking his path. Assanova towers over the much smaller Pete. "What are you doing, Pete?" Norman says, "you’re
going to get yourself killed." "You’ve been messing with my girl," Pete says. "Bug off," Assanova growls. Pete refuses to move. Assanova
swats at him, but Pete darts out of the way. "I said shoofly," Assonova says. "You’ve been breeding with Betty." "Hmmm, Betty. Let’s
see. Didn’t she just have a whole
mess of kids?" "That’s right." "Well I wouldn’t be too surprised if a few hundred of
them looked just like me." "That’s it!"
Pete
reaches behind him and whips out a fly swatter. "Uh oh, he’s packing," yells the bartender and everyone
hits the floor. Everybody but
Assanova, that is, who harldy looks bugged at all.
"Come on, take it outside," the bartender says totally hidden behind
the bar. "Where’d you get that, Pete?" Norman asks, laid out on
the floor. "Don’t you remember, Norm?
I used to be on the swat team." "So you think you’re a tough fly?" Assanova says,
"maybe you ought to put that away before someone gets hurt." "Anyone gets hurt, it’s going to be you."
Pete lunges forward and whacks Assanova with the fly swatter.
Assanova is injured, and he frantically hops around in circles.
Finally, the big fly settles down and faces Pete. "Is that the best you got?" Assanova asks.
"Well lookee what I got here."
Assanova
whips out a can of bug spray. Pete
sees it and backs up, eyes wide with fear. "You know, you’re just a lousy no good barfly."
Assanova says and shoots a direct shot into Pete’s face.
Pete drops to the ground like he’s been shot. Assanova calmly leans forward, lifts a foot onto Pete’s
back, calmy bends over, and rips off one of Pete’s wings.
"There. Now you’re wings
have been clipped." Assanova calmly tosses the wing aside and saunters off down
the bar. Slowly, the other flies in the bar start to stand.
Norman and Morty rise to their feet.
Pete is still lying flat on his face.
His buddies help him up. "I told you not to mess with him!" Norman says. Like nothing had happened, Pete casually brushes himself off.
Then he waves the bartender over. "Get
us another round of drinks." The bartender moves off.
Morty can’t stop staring at Pete and shaking his head.
"I don’t believe it, Pete," he says,
"what are you going to
do?" "Ahh, who cares?" Pete answers. "I never liked flying much anyway." |
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