Reese & Ellis

The tavern is full of people. The smell of sweat is thick in the air. A few men make up a line for the pay phone in the corner and several people are just loitering. The owner of the joint, Laina, makes a mental note to kick them out when she gets a chance. A thoroughly drunk man with a beret says to the man sitting alone at a table next to him. "I gotta take a piss, watch my batteries 'kay?"

The other man, a short guy with a rough blond beard grunts and takes a sip from his mug of beer. The beret man leaves and the blond man quickly picks up the man's bag of batteries and sifts through it. Ellis, the young bartender of only 15 years looks at the blond man, but he does not just look. He sees.

Wedding ring on finger.

Some sort of animal fur on coat. Hunter or butcher.

Clothes nice but very cheap.

The battery bag he is stealing contains some C batteries.

Ellis turns to Reese, a waitress of the same age and whispers in her ear. "Beret man is rich, and the blond man isn't."

Reese nods and instantly forms a plan. She walks to the table where the blond man is sitting. "Can I get you another beer?"

Blond man says yes and hands over a few batteries he took from beret's bag. "Hold on a sec, I don't want you taking from that man's bag anymore." Reese says. "This can be our little secret just once, but I'm going to have to take that man's coins and hold on to them until he gets back."

"A'ight, fine." Blond man says with a grunt.

Reese takes the bag and puts it in the pocket of her apron. Thirty seconds later Beret walks in the door. "Ay, where's my batteries, theif?"

Blond is flustered. "The lass behind the counter took 'em for safe keepin'! I swear!"

Reese puts a confused look on her face. "If you stole that man's money, you had better give it back."

"But you have his money!" he yells.

Beret's fist collides with Blond's face. "I want my money back, asshole."

"Whoa, lets calm down here guys." says Ellis. "If you're going to fight, do it outside."

Ellis grabs both men by their collars and shoves them out the door. "You put Beret's empty coin bag in Blond's pocket, right?" he says after coming back inside.

"Of course, you were right about Beret. His bag had 5 Cs, 7 Ds, 4 trip As, and 11 dub As." Reese smiles. Ellis smiles back.