Tip Rats

Part 7 - Top Pub

Ned could hear the music and the rabble from the beer garden as they approached the pub. When he was in his mid-teens Ned would see the people packing out the pub, swaying and shouting, they seemed to be having the time of their lives and he desperately wanted in. After he was finally old enough to join them the novelty wore off fairly rapidly, seeing the same drunk dude's sleazing on to the same drunk chicks every week and hearing the same stories on repeat got boring very quickly. Ned had been putting some distance between visits to maintain some degree of dignity and this was his first visit for a good few weeks. As they walked in he saw the same faces he always did, it smelt the same too, a mixture of smoke, piss, sweat and perfume.

'What are ya having?' asked Andy rising on to his toes and craning his neck to get a look at the bar-queue depth.

'Whatever you are mate, I'm not fussed.'

'Alright, well I'll head over to the bar, you wanna grab a table out in the beer garden?'

'Righto' Ned nodded and started wading through the crowd, making for the back door as Andy made his way toward the bar, manoeuvring himself around beer glasses held with varying degrees of firmness.

Ned made it to the beer garden without incident or acknowledgement. He found a recently vacated table next to the fence overlooking the main road, it was still sporting two half eaten serves of calamari and chips. The glass doors dividing the indoor and outdoor drinking areas served as a real-life big screen through which Ned could watch a silent movie full of exaggerated actions and responses with a soundtrack of 90's pop/rock being dished out by the house band.

After a few minutes Andy backed his way through the glass doors with a schooner of beer in each hand. 'You score us a feed mate?' said Andy pointing at the remnants left by the previous occupants.

'Yeah, they're both for you' Ned replied, pushing the plated towards the edge of the table.

'You're a sweet man, Ned.' Andy placed the beers on the table and slid across the bench so he could lean up against the fence. 'I saw Chris's dad and grandpa in there, it'll be a real family affair when he turns up.'

'I reckon most days of the week there'd be three generations of a family in this joint' replied Ned. Ned's mother had been a regular here for years, back when she was still a resident. She didn't drink all that much, but her arse print was embedded in the stool that was bolted to the floor in front of the 'Queen of the Nile' poker machine, which still held pride of place in the far corner of the gaming room.

'Speaking of family affairs, guess who I can see lurking over near the car park.'

Ned turned around and saw Shane unloading a tall tale on some of his local acquaintances, who were swaying, with what Shane would assume was interest.

'He's gonna spot us eventually mate' warned Andy.

'Hopefully Chris is here by then, they can shit-talk the night away' Ned replied, willing himself to blend into the scenery.

Due to the relative infrequency of his visits compared to the majority of the pub patrons, Ned usually spent a good deal of time returning nods of acknowledgement and exchanging details of recent events with people he went to school with and with friends of his sisters. These exchanges usually resulted in a few free drinks, which helped to make the experience more pleasant while Ned, without directly enquiring, bacame fully up to date with the recent activities of people who hadn't troubled his thoughts for a good while.

*

'You're up mate' said Andy, tapping his empty beer glass on the pine table-top, rattling the cutlery that remained uncollected on the table.