UM(1) Creative Writing Club (Activity)

Rasp

The doorbell chimes and Walt welcomes a woman in her mid thirties wearing a familiar solace as most customers here did. He tends people by offering some kind of liquor they ask for.Sometimes, the regulars console him.

Lorrarine puts the car key on the lustrous indigo table. She ran out of beer at home so she came here for convenience purpose. Thin, unkempt clothes on her thin or rather shrivelled figure telling her time's been stagnant for almost 2 years now. She looks up to order her usual drink.She meets a pair of warm eyes.
"One Corpse Reviver,please," she titters without greeting her new neighbor of half a year, sounding desperate and serious.
"Just twenty small pieces of your Casio, ma'am," he said hoping to silent the awkward atmosphere.

It's already 1am when she finishes gulping some good load of alcohol down, and starts gibbering.
" Hey, you people there! C'mere. I have a gooood story to break down to----day."
Walt got cut in a conversation with another regular.
He approaches her since he was trained whatever happens during his shift is his responsibility.
"Ma'am, the customers around this hour have their own loads, and also, I can effectively listen only when you tone down a bit."
Returning to her normal self, she says "Wow, look at me now. Burdening the society and this poor bartender...," glancing up, she continued , "Walt."

Sympathy hits Walt. He sits down facing her.
"Continue."
"What?"
"Your story. Your tears."
Lorrarine stares blankly at the liquor shelf filled with grand bottles.
"Today's exactly 20 months of my dear's last minutes."
"Your blood?"
"My baby, the creator's messed up. Took her away... just after her 15th year, and in my absence at that.
If only that jerk were a little bit competent.If only I wasn't so fixated on paying the bills off that night or should I say morning..."

After a heavy breath, she continued "Kea never did experience a happy childhood mostly because of our consistent fights. She didn't demand barbie, she didn't agitate and beg for amusement rides. Till my final memory with her, all she requested was a kiss and a pat on her head."

Saying that, she recalled Kea's once shiny blonde hair had shrivelled by that time. All those drugs,IVs and radiation did a massive attack when her own cells didn't let her rest.
"It must've been gravely scary that day... or every night on that doom-reeky bed," tears stream down her haggard face.

"That's why you ran away? The regret, the loss and the blames you put on yourself and others?" Walt calmly questions the obvious.

"I wept a lot everyday after her death. I lost count of days and nights for a long time. I filed for a divorce against the bastard after first anniversary of Kea's death. I hated myself when I was surviving to work, blabbering the positive words I didn't want to. After a couple months, I left my former town. I rented a cheap house for half a year with the salary from the last job. Yes, I ran away."
She ended up peeling the sealed tape off a big barrel she's been shouldering all this time. Partly because of the gin or partly because of his curious yet composed eyes and words.
"What've you done for Kea after her death, ma'am, except for the deep mourning?" he asks, resolute hinting on his lips.
A bit stunned, she answered "I gave away our belongings to those in need. I went back to the same hospital where Kea'd died and raised a campaign together with the moms I knew there."

"Did you think about how much Kea would be proud of you if she were to see her mom being a role model for kids like her?"
"What's the point? She's not here."
"But, how about you? Do you really think your irresponsibility will be erased if you're doing what you're about to do,ma'am?"
"Who're you to say such things? You have no idea."
Walt's gaze fixates on her and says, "It'd never been easy to survive alone outside the bars as a leader putting your teenage friends inside and hearing they passed away, overdosed and angry. It took me nearly twenty and a half decades to settle down and live a life to cure myself."
He studies Lorrarine's changed her expression so he goes on. "If you are curious about what I did and how I passed those crazy years in a short parameter, I warmly welcome you. Could take a month or so. Decide after that. I won't stop you."

15 minutes long uninterrupted silence follows his words and is broken down with Lorrarine saying "Okay. Let's be friends for a month."