New Story - again written exclusively on Steemit - WiP - Bouncer Part 31

This story is evolving with a pace all its own. I'm listening to the feedback and if something resonates, I've decided that I'll go with it (thanks @kiwideb). Feel free to give feedback on characters, storylines etc - even if you think it's harsh.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26, part 27, Part 28, Part 29, Part 30

Pictures from Google free to use search

Please note: This is the FIRST DRAFT, no editing, written straight onto paper. I don't know how to highlight that any more than it is. I'll NOT be making any alterations to what's already been written. As a good friend and excellent author has said, First draft is a race to get the story down before it decides to stop telling itself to you. Thanks Glenn. @alienbutt

70 pages, 27,660 words so far.

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To understand this story, you have to know the layout of the club.

The stairs from reception went up to a mid-landing and turned 180 degrees to go from the landing to the club itself. Though the stairs were not very steep, they were wide – three people wide. The bannister was a reach if you were in the middle of the staircase.

Right at the top of the stairs, almost as soon as the club floor started, the bar started. The hatch to get behind the bar was attached to the wall right at the top of the stairs. The hatch became progressively busier as the evenings wore on, lifting and dropping the hatch was a necessity so that the customers didn’t wander behind the bar.

The night in question, the alcoholic regular had moved back and back to sit so close to the hinged part of the bar that he was getting in the way of the bar staff that needed to get in and out. To begin with, they were patient and polite but as they got to the end of the shift and became tired, wanting the club to be closed so they could go home, he became more of a nuisance.

He was no longer responsive to their requests to move and one small bartender went down to the reception to ask if something could be done.

“Is he still drinking?” someone asked.

“No, he’s asleep,” she said.

“I’ll sort it,” Sinbad said and followed the bartender up the stairs.

The girl went up and stood behind the alcoholic’s barstool. Sinbad, still on the stairs – a couple of steps down – reached forward and took hold of the barstool’s legs. He waited for a few people to pass him before making his move.

He gave a mighty pull and the stool jerked from under the alcoholic to deposit him on the floor.

Or at least that’s what Sinbad meant to do (or did he?)

What actually happened was the alcoholic tried to react to suddenly falling and in his drink-induced state, fell sideways. He stumbled and fell down the stairs. Sinbad dodged out of the way of him falling and the alcoholic fell with his back facing down the stairs. He had no chance of saving himself, even if he were sober, and as he fell past Sinbad, the only chance he had was if the doorman grabbed him.

The people that had been going home were bowled over with his fall and taken with him. They all ended up on the mid-landing in a groaning heap.

Sinbad stood at the top of the stairs laughing at the accident he’d caused.

Someone puked and made the whole mess even more distasteful and Sinbad laughed harder. He disappeared up into the club so that he didn’t have to help clear up the mess he’d made. He left that to his colleagues downstairs. They heard the commotion and ran up to see what had happened.

People that had been going down the stairs managed to scramble up, covered in puke and were understandably angry.

The alcoholic was helped down the stairs – at arm’s length because of the puke – and put outside to make his way home.

He was never seen again and the rumour is that he died soon after.

Zack finished the story with, “It could be that he decided to start going to a different club, but I’ve never seen him since and I used to see him all the time.”

“So he didn’t ‘almost kill’ the alcoholic, he could actually have killed him?” Liz said, horrified.

Zack nodded.

“I didn’t realise he’d died,” Taylor said. “It wasn’t a nice story to start with, but knowing the guy could have died because of that fall is worse.”

“And that’s all I need to make the decision that Sinbad will never work for me,” Zack said. “He was already at Mikhail’s club when I went to work there. He was belligerent and sullen with me. He believed he deserved the job because he’d been there longest. He made my work that much more difficult because he always knew best, even when he’d been proven wrong.”

Liz was still horrified at the result of the story and she shook her head as if to remove the images that Zack had painted in her mind.

“I agree,” she said. “He’s not to work here.”