another 'delayed' drabble...this one's from Sunday's prompt...
“That's some character you got there for a father-in-law, Twist.”
“Guess that's so,” and Jack brushed off some ash that had fallen onto the sleeve of his new shirt.
The John Deere rep tipped back the longneck and finished the last of the beer.
“Well, there's one down. Don't have to be on the road until 7am so I reckon I can work my way through a few more of these.” He signaled to the bartender. With his hand still raised he turned to Jack, said, “You ready for another?”
Jack shook his head, “Nope, doin' fine with what I got,” kept staring straight into the rows of bottles doubled by the cracking mirror behind them. He'd thought for a while that a bottle might hold the oblivion he wanted, had worked his way through too many and found no rest, only a sorrow that cut even deeper, more jagged-edged, when his mind was too fogged to hold the pain at bay.
“Well, it looks like you got yourself a sweet deal, pretty wife, nice kid, job with a future.” The rep scrabbled around in his pockets, came up with a lighter. “Lucky.”
“Looks that way, don't it.”
“Sure enough,” and the salesman got his cigarette lit, blew a smoke ring, looked real pleased with himself, caught Jack looking and laughed.
And Jack laughed, too.
What else was he gonna do.
Sit there and listen to the howling inside that hardly never stopped?