The Small Town Beer Run Runaround
The Town
Many moons ago, I worked as a traveling furnace technician. I'd spend the entire week on the road, going from town to town, and I lived in hotels.
I enjoyed it. Everyday was an adventure. Like any job though, some days were brutal. That never-ending cycle of wondering what time it is, followed by the sudden loss of hope when noticing it has only been five minutes since the last check.
After a Long One
I asked the coworker to stop in the next town. We had another hour of driving before we'd reach the hotel. I wanted a beer, I didn't feel like waiting.
I used to enjoy a beer or two, sometimes six and maybe nine after work. They took the aches away and clouded my judgement which helped me stop thinking negative thoughts like, "What the hell am I doing with my life and why am I way out here in the middle of nowhere with a dude that won't stop texting and driving. Swerving all over the road, this guy is going to kill me."
He Stopped
I've been in these small town bars before. They're usually dank and like stepping into a time capsule. I expected to see a few old guys just chillin. I also expected everyone to stare at me as I coast through their regular stomping grounds on my mission to find cold beer.
I wasn't worried about keeping up appearances. Though I was fully decked out in my filthy work clothes and wearing my massive winter boots that dragged along the floor as I walked, I still felt I'd somehow win the best dressed award the moment I got inside.
I opened the door. What is this place! It was like a mini big city club. The music was thumping and I was shocked to see young people enjoying their night out.
I was right, everyone stared. I think one drunk chick laughed at my boots. I didn't care though. There were a few things about her I could have laughed about too, but I was not a drunk chick in a small town bar who does that kind of thing.
The Beautiful Blonde Bartender
I felt like I was being ignored. Maybe they don't serve people who look like me. I stood there, at the bar. I didn't want a drink. I didn't want to hang out. I just wanted some damn beer to take with me and I wanted it fast because these people were creeping me out. Everything seemed strange and my thoughts were running wild. Were these people vampires?
Finally, she looks at me. It was a look of, who are you and why are you here? I asked where I could purchase cold beer.
"It's around back. Just go through that door, go down the hall, then go out the door on your right."
I obeyed. I followed the directions precisely. This lead me into another room. Convenience store setting. Long line up because the person paying was talking about her sister and the cookies she made. That conversation was taking too long. I was slightly confused as well. The cashier looked exactly like the bartender, but had a different shirt. My mind started to wander again. What kind of supernatural shit is this?
In general, I can be a very loud person. There were many people around and they did not scare me. I simply asked the entire room, "Is this where I can buy cold beer?"
Those bastards ignored me. So I raised my voice a little higher and added some depth. I wanted to be heard this time. I was becoming impatient. "Hello! Not from here! Is this where I can buy some beer?"
This strange little old man who I didn't even notice standing beside me taps me on the shoulder. He said nothing except the word beer and pointed at a door. "Through there," I asked. He nodded with a smile and I thanked him.
I Opened the Door
Somehow, magically, I entered the same dance club place I started in. It took me nearly fifty paces to travel from the club to the store part of this building. How in thee hell am I back in this fucking room with these vampires again!
I was so confused and I was starting to worry about my coworker still sitting outside in the van, waiting for me. At that point I had had enough. I approached that hot chick who somehow has a body double in the other place and demanded answers.
"What's going on here! I just want some damn beer. They don't sell beer in the store you sent me to! Where is the beer?"
She then responds with, "I'm sorry, it's through that door, down the hall, the first door on your right, then go outside, there's a place at the other end of the parking lot. They sell beer."
She didn't mention the last part the first time.
I Obeyed
I went outside, ignoring her messed up directions, to find my waiting friend. I told him these people were messing with me somehow and that we now needed to drive around to the other side of the parking lot. He was becoming impatient, but I already was, and didn't have time for his shit.
We drove around, saw the other building, noticed it seemed to be a bar as well. I got out of the van and entered the building.
It turned out to be some sort of hotel once I was inside, or maybe an apartment. There was no one around. The place was eerily quiet.
Following a few signs and some arrows, I approached the front desk. I had a look behind the counter. This place doubled as someone's home. That was a living room I was looking at. After making so much noise and saying hello about eight times, I suddenly felt like I was conducting some sort of home invasion. I left, quickly. My heart was pounding.
I got back in the van. My friend asked where the beer was. I told him I don't know and didn't want to talk about it. He suggested we try the place across the street in the other parking lot. The place that looks like a bar, with all of the people standing outside. I was worried.
I thought for sure somehow this town would transform again the moment I stepped inside. It didn't though. That place was exactly what I expected. A dim little bar with a few old guys just chillin. A happy bartender waiting to serve me. The man said they were out of the brand I wanted but offered to give me seven cans for the price of six if I bought a different brand.
I obeyed. I didn't care anymore. I felt like I deserved this free beer anyway. I got back in the van, cracked the beer, and told my coworker to get the hell out of this town as fast as he could. He obeyed.
To This Day
I still can't figure out what the hell happened to me in that town. Nothing made sense then, nothing makes sense now.
My friend told me I was gone for a total of forty-five minutes. It felt like a long time, but I didn't think it was that long.
Nothing felt right when I was in those buildings. Either the town is haunted or possessed or those people just like to mess with out-of-towners. I hope they didn't plan and rehearse this little game. I hope I'm not the only one that came out alive.
I might go back there someday. I need answers. I worry though. The town of Eston might not let me out next time. I might get stuck inside some sort of endless cycle of blondes and beer chasing. I don't even know if that old guy was real or not. What the hell happened to me. I wasn't even stoned.
@nonameslefttouse The Writer/Artist Himself!
That town sounds like it got hit pretty hard by the Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. Also, do you know if that town is heavily involved in the military? From what I've heard, black ops military has technology 50+ years more advanced than what we have now. They could be using such technology to mess with people. I'm just trying to think outside the box here.
Which State is Eston in?
Don't worry. This took place in Canada. We don't have to worry about our government spending millions just to mess with one dude who wanted beer that day. It's in Saskatchewan. Very small town in the middle of nowhere.
That is freaky. I have some pretty good stories involving supernatural phenomena, but only my bizarro dreams come close to that.
The experience felt like a dream and my memory of it seems dreamlike. It's real though, a true story. As I was writing this, I had to stop a few times. I was getting too creative and becoming overly descriptive with the words. Too much of that, and a story like this will sound like pure bullshit. I'm not much of a believer in paranormal stuff, but I've had other strange experiences. Those I can easily write off as coincidence. This little runaround baffles me.
I know what you mean. I have definitely written off most things I've encountered as having a plausible explanation that I just couldn't see. But there are those occasions...and yes, getting too flowery with it will make it sound made up haha.
You're a natural story teller, I can always perfectly envision it when I read your stuff.
I could probably do four posts a day just telling stories. I regret never being much into photography now. I think old photos would be a nice touch. I'll just stick to what I do though. I want to make the three figure payout my way someday. Thanks for the kind words.
There are soo many stories I'm not telling because I don't have pictures for them. Though in my case I took them, they just got lost in the shuffle of life, a couple fires, moving etc.
It's super cute and endearing when you get formal on me ;)
P.S. I speak Only Truth (it's get old, and than BAM it's new again LOL)
The truth is easy to speak, but I often find myself repeating... myself.
Hi @nonameslefttouse, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads today and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.
I received word through the desktop notifications and already sent you a reply. As I said there, I truly appreciate that. You're awesome!
thank you.. hope you found some other posts that you can enjoy as well :)
I've been thinking about doing a youtube throwback post...is it sad some of my kids earliest memories are of videos? My daughter pulled up this beauty:
Cat videos... This is more up my alley.
Cat videos aren't usually my thing, but mean kitty named sparta gets a laugh, you should watch before you judge...speaking of watching, what the hell am I watching LMFAO shoe bashes face, lots of blood and gore, yup, more you. Here, maybe this will float your boat hee hee:
Nope, that one was too strange. Didn't like it, for a few reasons, which I'll keep to myself.
I didn't actually think you'd like it, it was just amusing to imagine you watching it LMAO. Though they are both young teenagers so it's not as bad as it otherwise would be lol I'm getting a theme here, violence is your favorite, such a man, haha!
It's not the violence. It's the shock and absurdity. I appreciate artists who aren't afraid. I don't want to see kids dancing like freaks. It's too predictable.
Oh yeahh, I meant to congratulate you on your level up! And I was reminded by my own, yeah baby, 64, I am coming up ;)
Fair enough, my son said "That was the beginning of youtube, so basically we realized we could record ourselves for a global audience and this is what we did with it?" I had to laugh, because that video you hated was one of the top most popular at the time, lol.
No, yours are better, hands down, I was kidding :)
The same can be said about this platform and how so many (especially at first, things are changing now) pushed their way by offering informational style articles that would only appeal to a very small audience. They had a chance to write and were given a voice. The first thing they wanted to do was be smarter than everyone else. These aren't really mistakes though, just growing pains. It's popular for a time, because that is what appeals to the majority, until they get bored of the same old thing. Eventually, people start focusing on things that haven't been done and finally the dust settles. There are still plenty of kids shooting similar videos. Most won't be seen by too many unless they look, and nobody searches for that sort of thing. I think that made sense...
Makes perfect sense. If you look around you will find that many of the people here who were doing really well in the early days, right up to just after I joined actually, are starting to flounder. Article after article expressing concern and wondering where the votes went. If you click on their pages and compare them to yours you will find that in comparison you are kicking serious ass. It has a lot to do with the curation rewards having dropped off the map, before people were voting simply because an article might do well and they would benefit, little risk for possible great reward. Now people are voting on what they like, the stuff that's actually good. And those who were here with the whole 'get rich quick' scheme in mind are dropping away. And nobody without some skills or a fresh angle will make it as a newbie in its current state.
Of course there is still the exception of a handful of people that are favored for what basically amounts to site politics from what I've been able to ascertain.
In some ways I'm glad I came when I did, I never got sucked into the curation game, I've always voted based on what and of course sometimes simply who, I like.
In the end it is the creative, those with talent, a unique voice and yes, the guts to put yourself out there, that will thrive here.
And you are all of these things. I told you right from the beginning, it's a singular gift of mine to recognize genuine individuals ;)
Those politics don't bother me. Everything is so wide open here. Anyone with a decent understanding can figure things out. Any instances of indecency will catch up to people. That sort of thing eventually helps the honest ones climb the ladder.
Curation rewards, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. I've never used a bot, I don't just watch for the usual "winners", I don't time my votes... I just vote for what I like and try to support those who've supported me. I vote for a lot of comments on my blog, which murders my power, but I don't mind boosting reputation for people. All of that and I'm ranked the 634th best curator. People just get sucked in to these sales pitches that make everything sound easy. Advertising doesn't work on me.
As for all the right traits. I don't know what I do right. I'm just me and all I do is post the first thing that comes to mind that day. I like to be creative and produce exclusive content that can't be googled until I press the post button. Anything else is overly processed. When someone comes across as some sort of expert on every single topic you can throw at them, it's easy to see they just google another person's work, change it into their words, push send, and google the next thing to "write" about. Since there's money involved... those people will eventually get found out and probably have to spend a few thousand on lawyer fees. All it takes it one wrong move to ruin an entire future when you're too busy in the now to look.
Yep, and when they do get found out, the only way I'm going to know about it is if people point it out to me since the friends of significance I've made here are all creative beings with posts that reflect their individuality or unique awesomeness :)