Walt – The Bartender

“I don’t want to, Charlie,” he said, brushing the other man off.

“Walt. Come on. I’m thirsty. I need a drink. I’m dying here!”

He reached up to tug on his long graying ponytail. It was a move he did when he was angry, or as now, stressed. The two of them were sitting at a coffee shop halfway between his house and his bar.

What remained of his bar, he corrected. After the shifters had torn the place down around them, he’d tried to claim insurance, so that he could rebuild. Unfortunately, the assholes at the insurance company had decided that he didn’t qualify. Something about him having served too much to the one big fellow who had been there first, or some layer of bullshit. Walt wasn’t really sure.

Now he had no job, and half a building that had been deemed structurally unsound. Until he’d been denied it, he hadn’t really realized how much he’d looked forward to going in to work each day. True, most of his patrons were drunkards, but they were his patrons.

Had been his patrons, he corrected absently, the depression setting in one more time.

“Charlie, listen,” he said to the middle-aged bald man who had sat down across from him. He was wearing his favorite yellow T-shirt again, though in a shocking turn of events, it appeared to be clean. “I know you feel the hunger. I get it. But the bar is closed. Hell, it’s not even closed. It’s destroyed. I’m not even allowed on the property really. Certainly not to open it!”

The other man rolled his watery eyes. “Come on, Walt!”

He frowned. Something was driving the other man. Something besides his drive for the next sip. The brightness in those eyes was at odds with the normal flat, dull shine that occupied them when he was deep in the drink. It looked like…

“Walt, let’s go!” Charlie grabbed at his hand excitedly, pulling him from his seat.

“Holy...okay, Charlie. Okay! I’m coming…fuck,” he cursed, hopping along to regain his balance as he followed the other man out of the store, remembering at the last moment to throw a bill down to cover his coffee.

By the time he made it outside, Charlie was already hurrying down the sidewalk. Cursing the sudden bout of activity, he rushed after him.

“What is your hurry?” he asked, grabbing a handful of yellow shirt, slowing his friend down enough so that he could catch up.

Charlie just shook his head and tilted it in the direction of the bar. Walt just sighed and settled in for the walk. It only took a handful of minutes. He’d purposefully bought his little turn-of-the-century house in the closest neighborhood to his workplace. Commuting for work wasn’t something he was overly interested in doing.

All of that was forgotten though as his ruined bar came into view. Only, it wasn’t ruined. It was under construction.

“What is going on?” he asked, stumbling to a halt as he viewed the sight before him.

“Isn’t it spectacular, Walt! The shifter, Maximus, he came back.”

Charlie blabbered on some more about what Walt could already see. The parking lot was filled. A huge truck was lifting a bin onto its back that was filled with debris, while workers began to fill another container next to it. To the right of them, a large tractor-trailer was currently being unloaded, as more massive bodies hauled piles of wood off that would have required multiple humans to handle.

“Are they all shifters?” he breathed, watching as the ruins of his old bar were torn down while he watched. Anything that could be saved was being hauled out the far side and placed in yet another container, this time much more delicately.

“Yeah, Walt! They said they’re here to help, as a thank you.”

Walt just stared, even as a familiar hulking shape jumped down from one of the thick new beams that had been erected to serve as part of the frame for the new building.

“Hi, Walt,” Maximus said, extending his hand.

He shook it, still stunned by what he was seeing. “But why?”

The shifter gave him a long regard. “Because you’re a good person,” he said at long last. “You treat your patrons well, and they all had good things to say about you.”

A woman emerged from within the construction, waving at them all.

“You remember Haley,” the shifter said, indicating the woman.

“We’re ready now, Maximus my love.”

Walt smiled. “Got the girl in the end did ya?”

Maximus smiled. “I did do that, yes. Best decision of my life,” he growled, pulling the lovely brunette tight to his hip. “Now come on. We have one more surprise.”

Curious, Walt followed the pair, weaving their way around busily working shifters. The pace of work was astronomical. If they kept it up, the entire building would be rebuilt in a day, perhaps two. Amazing.

“So Walt, the bar is my gift to you, as a thanks for providing me a place to relax and think things through. It’s my fault that it was torn down, which is why we’re here rebuilding it. I owed you a debt, and I had to settle it.”

“I would say you’ve done more than just that,” Walt said, turning as they walked, trying to take in everything he was seeing.

“But you weren’t the only one that treated me well during my short stay here.”

Walt’s attention returned to the shifter.

“Charlie, this surprise is for you,” Haley said, stepping through the framed wall they’d come to a halt at, and bringing someone back inside.

“Karen?” he heard Charlie say in a choked-up voice.

“Charlie?”

Walt watched as a woman in her early thirties came through the door. Wavy reddish-brown hair cascaded over her shoulders, emphasizing the pale freckle-lined skin of her face and the nervous green gems that sat deep in her face. The pair embraced carefully, avoiding the growing swell he could see in her belly.

Truth be told though, his eyes were hard-pressed to find anywhere to look at but her face. Karen was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

“Walt?...Walt? This is my sister, Karen. Karen, this is Walt. This is his bar.”

Nervously Walt wiped his hand and stuck it out. “Hi,” he said, feeling like he was back in high-school once again. “Nice to meet you.”

“Hi,” the younger, pregnant woman said shyly, looking up at him through her long lashes. “Walt, was it?”

“Yeah,” he said, still staring.