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Draft beer was fifty cents and there was usually a ball game on the television I would have two or three beers, watch the ga,heat of the day

Sometimes I would find Nancy and ould eat dinner, talk a little, fight a little, and then either make up and s The next day it would start all over again and I was at the point where I couldn’t tell one day fro that happens in Key West anyway, but noorse

I had learned t

hat Nancy was one of those people who needs to fight Not out of any sense of ue about soreat satisfaction fros were said and then she’d make up in the face of this new “honesty”

I was just the opposite Nancy thought fighting was a sign of a healthy relationship; I thought itNeither one of us could shake these convictions So the fighting went on, Nancy always pushing at ot too frustrated to stand it any longer and left, or I got too ht she craved

And so it had gradually dawned on us that ere even farther apart than we thought The distance between us grew, and the silence By now I knew that it was going to take a very big effort to keep the relationship alive I illing I wanted it to work But Nancy began working later shifts, forgetting to returnaway sometimes for three days at a stretch

She always apologized, saying that her work schedule at the hospital orse than usual Or maybe she took somebody else’s shift in the ER as a favor And when I said she should have called, it would launch us on another three-hour screa match

When you are in love with someone and they don’t see you or call you for three days—unless you are a coin to think they don’t care for you as much as you care for them And also—unless you are a co you can do about it

So with nothing else to do and no work to distract ht Room

It wasn’t so bad Everybody else in the place at that ti they pitied themselves for, so it was quiet Every so often so on the jukebox, which had sos

Between the songs and the ball gaain

This evening was no different There was a game on the blurry old TV set above the bar The Marlins were losing again The salasses They barely blinked as I caular booth in the back of the room

Maybe Nancy would find ivenme for

I sat innot to notice the smell from the back room Apparently they’d just poured soured that ought to do instead of flushing On top of that, so washed up on the beach and decided to fry it in transmission oil from a Packard they’d pulled out of a canal

And if that wasn’t enough, the Marlins were down seven runs in the fifth inning and suddenly ive

I stood and walked over to the bar There were a couple of boney, rangy guys sitting at the end of the bar, shrih, unwashed look of thelass as I passed by That didn’t lass in all the ti here They just sat there, two feet apart, and drank Never talked, never ht bend of the elbow as they raised their glasses without one to the bathroom

A very large woman with short hair and an ornate tattoo on her ar a word Maybe she was related to the shrimpers

As I headed back to ht and the front door swung open I squinted in its direction

Nancy stood just inside, blinking as her eyes adjusted She looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, except a deer never ood that the two shrimpers moved their heads an inch and a half each just to look at her