7.
Tempus Fugit, Oded’s pub is in Ostend on Van Iseghem Avenue. Oded is Jabar’s best and oldest friend. I understood they have fought together in Normandy and that only creates a strong bond that’s unbreakable.
I take the same way back as tonight and reach the centre within twenty minutes. Tourists only crowd the route between Jabbeke and Ostend during the vacation periods, further it’s usually calm and peaceful.
It’s a beautiful spring day and the cloudless sky manages to cheer me up a little. Lamb’s ‘What’s that sound’ does the rest, so I park my car in front of Tempus Fugit with a smile on my face. I lay the resident parking card in a visible spot under the front window, get my fingers through my hair and step out.
The pub isn’t open yet, so I use my keys.
Oded is standing behind the bar, cleaning glasses. Tempus Fugit is at first sight an average pub, pleasantly equipped with dark wooden furniture and soft armchairs. The walls are decorated with memorable souvenirs Oded has collected throughout the years. Old number plates and pamphlets, signed posters from celebrities from the forties, funny pictures and so on.
Oded is a devil and one hundred and twenty-seven years old, which is around forty-two years in person-years.
The pub is known to have the biggest and most exclusive whisky collection of Belgium so people from different levels and from far and near come around to have a taste.
‘Hi, Oded.’ I immediately get behind the counter, dump my wallet and car keys and give him a kiss. The rat, Squeaky, which Oded drags along always and everywhere in the breast pocket of his shirt, gets a pet on his little head.
‘Hey Manon. Had a rough night?’ Oded has a roguish look in his eyes. His dark blond, luxuriant hair is spiky as always.
I heave a deep sigh. ‘I think I’ll adopt another outlook today. It seems I look like a mess.’
‘Nah, I’m just teasing you. By the way, what would the clients think? That I took on a new waitress, while you were so fucking great?’ Oded smiles and puts the glasses in the closet behind him.
From the beginning we agreed on the fact that he would put the most used glasses and bottles low, because with his length of two meters he can reach everything, but I can’t.
‘And you’ll never find a better waitress again.’
I take the dishcloth and with a wink I turn to the little, round tables to polish them clean. ‘By the way, the order I had to deal with yesterday was in New York.’
‘New York? Neat! Wicked city with a bunch of stressing baboons inhabiting it. Had the time to see something of the city?’
I grin at him. ‘You know me, don’t you. Returning home as soon as possible.’
‘Girly, how can you see something of the world than?’
‘I’m still young. Oh, say, can I go to the telephone shop for a while this afternoon to get my number changed?’
‘Of course.’ Oded looks at me, wondering, but he doesn’t go on about it. It’s a luck; I don’t want to rake up my blunder again.
I take the ashtrays standing on the bar and put one on each table. If things really get so far smoking will be forbidden in pubs, I already know for sure Oded won’t keep to it. Being a confirmed smoker he won’t put up with the government minding his business. He’ll probably say something like: ‘I fought in the Second World War and was in Normandy. I have made my contribution and now they have to leave me alone and fuck off.’ He’ll probably add some more steep curses to it.
I chuckle when I think about it.
‘What’s the matter? Can I join in your private joke?’ Oded asks.
‘Will you put up with it when they forbid smoking in pubs?’
His face simultaneously spells trouble. ‘Are you nuts? Never in my life! I’ve fucking fought…’
At the same time I finish his sentence for him: ‘in the Second World War.’
‘And…’ He looks at me and bursts out laughing. Me too.
I’m pleased to laugh out loud and soon the tears are rolling down my cheeks.
‘You know me too well, Manon,’ he keeps chuckling and simultaneously lights a cigarette.
‘Say, Oded?’
‘Yes?’
‘Devils loathe drugs, don’t they?’
‘Normally speaking, they do, yes. Why?’
‘That devil in New York claimed he needed money to buy drugs.’
‘Could be of course. There are exceptions in everything.’
‘Yeah, probably. By the way, you’re wearing a nice shirt again.’
Oded looks at his Hawaiian shirt as if looking at it for the first time and beams. ‘Found it in the secondhand shop at Newport road.’
You can count on Oded, he barely changes. I can easily imagine his closet is bulging out with Hawaiian shirts in all kinds of patterns and colors and cotton pants.
I put the chairs orderly and the first two costumers come in. With their custom-made suite and tie they make me suspect they’re businesspeople that come to drink their afternoon aperitif. They take a seat and each order a Glenmorangie The Lastana. Excellent choice. After two years I very well know which whiskies are good and which are less.
I get behind the bar and start to tidy things up. Meanwhile Oded is replenishing the stock. Although I don’t keep an eye on the two gentlemen, I can feel their eyes on me from time to time. But every time I look up, they seem to be talking busily and not taking notice of me. Maybe I’m just imagining things. After all I’m tired and my head isn’t so clear. And possibly the recent events have made me paranoia. Oh well, it isn’t bad. In my kind of work this is better than being too credulous.
I need to go to the toilet badly and walk past the table of the businessmen. They’re sitting with their faces close to each other as if they’re discussing the biggest secrets. One, with a nose even an elephant could be jealous of, furtively looks at me and silences the other one with a ssshhh-sound.
Oded sees it happening and when I pass him he grinningly whispers: ‘You’ve pulled.’
I turn up my noise. ‘I’d rather not with those two, thanks.’
I took a closer look at myself in the toilet. The bags under my eyes and my washed-out stupid hair aren’t really ‘men-attracters’ today. But ah, maybe those gentlemen aren’t choosy and they seduce everything that somewhat moves and has female shapes.
I wash my hands and splash water on my face, vain hope to chase away those pouches.
When in re-enter the pub, the two men have left. Luckily, I find it deadly if someone invites me for a date and I need to refuse it. It’s difficult because of my job on the side and the fact that I’m an otherkind to start a relationship with a human being. Actually to start a relationship with anyone or anything. I’m afraid I’ll end up alone as an old spinster on the big domain, together with Diedie and Jabar.
I clean the gentlemen’s table and rinse out the glasses. With the tip they left I can’t even buy an acid drop. Scrooges!
The rest of the afternoon is relatively calm so it isn’t a problem when I slip away for a while to get my number changed. It’s odd, but I’m much more careful. I can feel that threatening dark cloud in the tips of my nerves and hold my mind sharp and my look attentive.
While I’m waiting to get helped in the telephone store, I feel looked at. I turn around with a tug towards the window and don’t let me freak out immediately now! That one guy, with his thick nose, is spying on me from the opposite side of the road! I return a nasty look and with quick steps he disappears into a side alley. Spying on me. The guts!
I tell it to Oded later on and he advises me to tell it to Jabar and Diedie this evening.
‘I don’t think it’s just an interest in your femininity,’ Oded says. ‘Maybe there’s more going on.’
‘I start to suspect that too,’ I say. ‘I already thought it was strange he liked the bags under my eyes.’
The rest of the evening we’re too busy serving costumers, so I don’t have the time to think about the entire incident. I keep working a little bit longer to help Oded out. Around nine p.m. a figure enters, fully dressed in black. His hair is shiny black and seems to absorb all the light of the room. With a self-assured pace he walks towards the bar and takes a seat on a bar stool, his long black coat neatly draping backward.
He isn’t extremely handsome, but he has a face you’ll never be able to forget. Like a puzzle that keeps intriguing you. I’ve got difficulty to tear loose from his look. He notices and smiles at me. I smile faltered and walk towards him.
‘What will it be?’ Good, I’ve got my voice under control.
‘I’ve heard you’ve got excellent rum.’ His voice sounds warm and inviting.
‘We certainly have. But we’ve even got better whisky. We only don’t do cognac, the boss thinks it’s an overrated drink.’
‘I totally agree with him.’
His gaze is so penetrating I’m getting rocky on my legs. I should serve him quickly and than clear off before I start drooling.
‘What kind of rum did you want?’
‘You know what. I’ll take a whisky and you may choose. I have implicit faith in you.’
‘Okay.’
I turn towards the bottles. Think, Manon, think and don’t make a mistake! Impress him with an excellent choice!
Without looking his way, I ask: ‘Is the price of any matter to you?’
‘Not at all,’ he answers resolutely.
I choose for the Dun Bheagan, Vintage Bottling of eleven years old. Excellent to start with. He takes a cautious sip, lets the golden drink caress his tongue and swallows.
‘From now on you can always pick my whisky,’ he grins.
It wasn’t until now I noticed he has two protruding canines. He certainly could be a vampire, although it isn’t a convincing evidence. A vampire’s fangs are small, not as in the movies and even human beings can have them. It doesn’t matter anyway, I conclude and go serving another costumer.
Nevertheless, I keep a secret eye on him when I’m sure he doesn’t notice. He’s talking to no one and keeps staring into his glass or in front of him most of the time. He frowns from time to time, as if he’s involved in a deep discussion with himself. I think he looks lost, tormented. Someone who’s bearing a heavy past. But maybe that’s just my imagination and I’m ascribing mysterious characteristics to him that aren’t there.
Broken and exhausted I take leave of Oded around ten p.m.. He orders me not to come back before 4 p.m. tomorrow and to take a good rest.
Hopefully I’ll manage to do so tonight, but I’m afraid I won’t. That’s the way I am: at the slightest I worry and ruminate about it until the problem is solved.