Guzzler

Guzzlers (WIP)

I always hated the taste of alcohol, but the smell was a different kind of story. Malt liquor always tickled my nose and made me feel some type of way. But not the taste, fuck the taste of any and all alcohol, except for 'Shatner's Return', goddamn was that the best tasting wine I've had in my entire life. It was of merlot variety that appeared randomly at Grooly's one morning, not even Grooly himself could tell where it came from. Fifty nine bottles lined the shelves of what used to be the red wine section of the small corner store. Adjacent to it were the chardonnays, the sauvignon blancs, and a couple of pinot grigios to round off the end of the aisle, leading towards the craft beer section. I had first heard of this anomaly when I walked in to grab my usual coffee, decaf with three cups of sugar and a pump of pumpkin spice creamer, it wasn't even autumn but Grooly had made the mistake of overordering thinking it would be a big hit. He was dead wrong in that sense, it was a big hit with three of his customers, myself included. The usual crowd of his store was into more of the normal types of coffee, french vanilla and regular cappuccino so underselling the pumpkin spice was an overstatement.

I was getting checked out by Grooly when he said: "You ever hear of Shatner's Return?"

"No.. you know that Grools I'm not a drinker of any kind besides the spice" I winked and motioned my freshly filled cup towards him.

"Well... I got a shipment of it, and hell I don't know if the company who sent it had their own people set it up, but it's taken up all my space in the back." He nodded his head towards the back of the store, it was a small store, but it had everything you needed to start your day or end your night, and in the very back I saw it, catching my eyes almost instantly. It was redder than you'd expect for any type of wine, more of a vibrant bloodred than the soft maroon wine usually is. I couldn't tell if that was because of the glass encasing it or the fluorescent lights towering above it.

"Mind if i check it out?"

"Knock yourself out kid, just be careful, they never sent me the price cards so I don't know if it's dirt cheap or gonna cost me a second mortgage on this place if any breaks."

"Alright, I'll be careful, but why're they gonna charge you for something they never even notified you of selling, could be an illegal front for something else." I chuckled, I was spitballing with him as we made our way towards the back. I was the only person in the store this early, and usually would be as my schedule started about two hours before my fathers, so that we never had to cross paths until that evening when I got home. Grooly was always the type of guy to enjoy the community, and probably why he even owned the store in the first place. Twenty years of nonstop coffee smelling and selling candy bars and snacks to overindulged people would drive me crazy. But not Grooly, it was his calling in life I'd say, serving the members of Gracton well and worthwhile. He smiled at everyone who came in and even was on a first name basis with half the town, even me.

"So what do you make of all of this Ketra." Grooly laid that one on me as easily as the cylinders of glass had been laid on his shelf. Arranged in a symmetrical order and even though there was an odd number of them, they lined up perfectly.

"Why do you think they chose you to be their frontman for something like this? I mean these bottles look fairly pricey and if they didn't even give you the modesty of leaving the price cards, I'd say fuck em and charge whatever you want for it, if it's good that is." Grools scratched his ruffled beard, it was dark brown when I'd first met him but now it was waning towards a cheap grey, which seemed to fit him.

"What if it's some shitty wine?"

"Well you gotta try it then. Only way you'll know if it's worth charging a pretty penny for it."