Single post in The Little One -- [COMPLETED]

“Gettin’ anything, boy?” Willie called out. The young man slowly shook his head, still enamored with the reflection. “It’s like meeting a stranger,” he muttered under his breath. After seconds of more inspection, he finally gave up and turned toward the bar. “Nothing,” he resigned in a voice loud enough to be heard. “You hear about this kind of stuff happening, but you always think, ‘They gotta remember something!’ But it’s like I’m a complete tabula rasa.” Willie and Leland exchanged a mutual glare of confusion, and Willie spoke their single thought. “Tab-what?” The young man took up a stool next to Willie. “It’s Latin… means ‘blank slate’.” Leland chuckled while mixing several drinks into a cup-sized clear glass. “Guess you are a college kid. Not a lot of Latin flying ‘round here. Hey, Mac!” he called out. “Speak some Latin for the kid!” With a barely visible smirk, Mac took a heavy swig from his mug and swallowed hard before unleashing a belch that sounded like it rose from the darkest depths of his rotund gut before slamming the now emptied mug down on the table. Leland chuckled louder. “Now that Latin I get… means ‘pour me ‘nother right now!’” “Damn right!” Mac confirmed heartily. Even though he began to feel completely out of place, the young man smirked. Nothing was making any kind of sense, but he couldn’t fault Willie who was doing what he could to help. He might as well go along with things until his memories started to resurface. It was in that moment of resignation that he actually started to pay attention to the different bottles of dark red and brown liquids Leland carefully mixed into the glass. With an ever-growing concern, the young man asked, “What exactly goes into this ‘jump-start’ anyway?” “Probably best you don’t know,” Leland defended, “but if this don’t help you ‘member your name, then nothing in the world can unscramble that mess on top of your neck.” Despite the agreeing grunts from around the room, the young man wished he could feel better about the barkeep’s declaration. He suddenly wondered if someone had taught him a lesson about accepting weird-looking drinks from strangers. Who would that person have been? A father? A girlfriend? Not even the slightest detail of his life surfaced in random moments. There was just nothing. Did he even have a family? Was he an orphan? What could have caused him to go all amnesiac? Who was he?! “Bottoms up,” Leland said before setting the finished drink on a coaster and sliding it in the young man’s direction. Snapping out of his brief trance, the young man quickly brought his hand up to cradle the glass full of foggy, dark liquid to a slow stop before a single drop could dribble over the rim. “Nice reflexes.” The young man barely heard him, his eyes fixated on the drink. “You really expect me to swallow this?” “The faster, the better.” Willie gave a confident nod before requesting his own brew from the barkeep.