A Swig of Pride
That is, the beer, not my own pride. I’m not that self-deprecating.
Right now, just then, I had quite the strangest of conversations. Here’s me, in a bar, by myself, sitting there, drinking my pride. Quite literally my pride. A pint of pride.
Then, out of almost nowhere, a girl comes up to me, her accent a little hard to catch over the music. She asks me: “Are you alone?”. I look up from my phone and pint, startled that a person has approached me, and tried to speak over this thumping, body shaking music. I answer with a swift “why, yes I am”, that gets quickly followed up with “but, my, where are your friends?!”
A puzzled look, rapidly spreading across her face, pondering this situation. From there, she says, “I don't know you, but I’ll sit next to you, chat to you, and sip my drink quietly”. And so she does.
Until she asks another question. Well, the silence was nice while it lasted, I guess. This time, she asks where I’m from, what I’m doing here, and where my family is. I politely respond with the appropriate answers, and resume observing the room.
Taking a swig from my beer, I hear her speak again. Not catching it, I ask her to repeat. This time, in an undeniably louder and clearer voice, she says:
“I’ve been watching a television show recently. It’s called Hannibal. You remind me of him.”
My eyes dart up to her, somewhat in alarm. Have I really just been compared to a psychotic serial killer with a taste for human flesh? Or did I just mishear?
It must be the latter. It must be. Until she repeats: “you remind me of Hannibal.”. Well. Shit a brick. This is awkward. My only escape here is to ask her: “but, why?”.
But why? I ask that question with deep inquisitiveness. “Is it because I sit here alone, observe the world, take things in, and think quietly to myself?, she replies, “why yes, kind of.”
We get chatting a little more. She’s curious about the world. I don’t blame her. Why wouldn’t you be? At some point, she asks me why I’m here.
Aren’t we all here for the same reason?
That reason being that we’re all just collections of protons, neutrons, and electrons too, happily getting along, passing through this desperate world, happily getting along, until one day, *poof*, we disappear, forever gone.
Maybe I’m overthinking things. I’m going to go back to something I’m good at… like drinking my pride, and bopping my head slowly to Another One Bites The Dust. That’s a classic that.
