It was the last time I was there - and hopefully the last time. The festival, which once drew large crowds and International musicians, was now nothing more than a bunch of locals sitting around outside on plastic chairs getting sloshed as their kids sang karaoke and performed lackluster dance routines onstage.
The tired old man who ran the pub in the square opened it up for Jimmy and a few other vampires who couldn't contain their thirst until lunchtime. It was about 9am and the place was still reeking of stale beer and overflowing toilets from the carnage of the night afore. The half-dead cronies staggered into the place nursing hangovers and still half full of drink and nonsense. Little ol' me trekked in after them. I had been under the impression that we were just nipping to the shops for groceries, but I'd been duped. I navigated my way inside straddling dirty puddles and broken glass before eventually finding a clean-ish seat to sit on. A warm can of beer was tossed into my hand, and I sat there gagging and hanging my head in shame.
It would be the only time I spent with Jimmy that entire weekend; he was the reason I was there but he was on his own mission. Never again, I thought as I looked back in the rearview mirror. "Goodbye and good riddance!" I said with the bitterness of the warm flat beer still lingering in my mouth.
The End
