Writing.
By Earvin Eugene
Copyright © 2020 by Earvin P Eugene
All rights reserved.
Dublin is full of girls named Cara, which simply means friend. And there are other girls named Shauna, which means god is gracious or present. She had two older brothers who were bartenders at an Irish Pub, who had gotten their place through coming from the same small village as a former Pub bartender who had proven hardworking and honest and hence given his residencies and its products a good name; and these brother had paid her way on the auto-bus to Dublin and gotten her a job as an apprentice waiter. She came from a part of town that was a bit away from the capital yet had a strong community. Conditions were incredibly relaxed, food available, and some comforts and she had worked hard ever since she could remember. She was a petite girl with very brown, rather straight hair, good smile, and smelled better than Irish Spring. Skin with certain blemishes and freckles. Freckles even in her hazel eyes. She possessed a quick mind and did her work well and she loved her brothers, who seemed to attain a joking attitude and simple work ethic; she loved Dublin, which was still an unbelievable place, and she loved her work which, done under bright lights, with clean linen, the wearing of evening clothes, and abundant drinks in the bar, seemed romantically beautiful. There were from eight to a dozen other people who lived at the residences and ate in the dining room but for Cara, the youngest of the three waiters who served at table, the only ones who really existed were the business travelers.
Dublin, Ireland is a location for the representation of many international businesses. Low taxes, friendly people, and good drinks. There was a splendid night-life. It is necessary for a business traveler to acclimate to their new location to give the appearance, if not of prosperity, at least of respectability, since attractiveness and attitude rank above courage as the virtues most highly prized in Ireland, and business people stayed at the Irish Pub until their last drinks were gone. The most desired people were ones with silly wit. There is no record of any business traveler having left the Irish Pub for a better or more expensive hotel; mediocre business people never became first rate; but the descent from the hotel near the pub was swift since any one could stay there who was making anything at all and a bill was never presented to a guest unasked until the owners who ran the place knew that the case was hopeless. At this time there were many travelers living at "Mollie's". The hotel was luxurious for the travelers, required lodging in Dublin during the Spring season; but they were well paid and in the fixed employ of businessmen who were heavily contracted during the coming season and some would probably make much more apiece than any typical traveler. Of the three business travelers one was ill and trying to conceal it; one had passed his interesting fashion style as a typical and desired trend; and the third was weird. The strange one had at one time, until he had loss a lucrative financial deal at his first season as a complete business person, been exceptionally brave and remarkably skillful and he still had many of the hearty mannerisms of his days of success. A man living through the success of his past. Inheritance from predecessors, and perhaps a relic of the past of old traditional means of practicing good business. He was jovial to excess and laughed constantly with and without provocation. He had, when successful, been very addicted to practical jokes but he had given them up now. They took an assurance that he did not feel. This business traveler had an intelligent, very open face and he carried himself with much style.
The businessman who was ill was careful never to show it and was very detailed about eating a little of all the dishes that were presented at the table. He had a great many napkins which he intended to carry to his room and, lately, he had been setting deals in private. He had prepared cheap deals, before Christmas and another in the first week of April. They would hold him for the time being. His prized possessions were classical watches. They had been very expensive watches. He took good care of his possessions. Before he had become sick he had been a very promising, even a sensational, businessman. He noticed that his arrival to Dublin, Ireland had mad tabloid news. He ate alone at a small table and looked up very little. The businessman who had once been revered was now very weak. He also ate alone at a separate table and possessed a stoic demeanor. Once upon a time he was very cheerful and full of energy. He came from Italy, from a town, where the people could be extremely serious, and he was a good businessman; but his style had become outdated before he had ever succeeded in endearing himself to the public through his virtues, which were courage and a calm capability, and his name on a magazine was a relic of the past. His skill had been that he was very calculating. A duality of being entertaining to his partners as he planned to close many deals. Of the travelers one was a thin, hawk-faced, gray-haired man, slim built but with legs and arms as hard as rocks, who drank too much every evening and gazed amorously at any woman in the Irish Pub. The other was big, dark, brown-faced, good-looking, with black curly hair and enormous hands. Both were great business travelers although the first was reputed to have lost much of his ability through drink and dissipation, and the second was said to be too headstrong and quarrelsome to stay with any long-lasting capable business more than a single season. Another business traveler was middle-aged, gray, cat-quick in spite of his years and, sitting at the table he looked a moderately prosperous business man. His legs were still good for this season, and when they should go he was intelligent and experienced enough to keep regularly employed for a long time. There were all kinds of businessmen. Mostly, the attendance were aspiring moguls. Young and naïve travelers who placed a good time over accomplishments. They believed they still had time and wanted to make fun memories before it was truly time to commit to something. To make something of themselves. Business and pleasure do go together.
On this evening every one had left the dining room except the hawk-faced traveler who drank too much. At that time spirits were included in the price of the room and board at the Irish Pub and the waiters had just brought fresh bottles of Guiness to the tables of the business people. The three waiters stood at the end of the room. It was the rule of the house that they should all remain on duty until the diners whose tables they were responsible for should all have left. Cara had agreed to take over the table. Upstairs the business traveler who was ill was lying face down on his bed alone. The traveler who was no longer as valued was sitting looking out of his window preparing to walk out to the café. The business traveler who was a coward had the older brother of Cara in his room with him and receiving his help. This business traveler was saying "Look at those greedy men drink." "That's no way to speak," said the waiter. "They are decent clients. They do not drink too much."
"There are the two issues of Ireland, the weather and the jobs." "Look at the plenty of drinks of Dublin," said one waiter. "It is now half-past eleven o'clock and we are still drinking." "They only started to eat at ten," said the other waiter. "As you know there are many dishes. That beer is delicious and these have paid for it. It is a rewarding beer." "How can there be solidarity of workers with fools like you?" asked one waiter. "Look," said the second waiter who was a man of fifty. "I have worked all my life. In all that remains of my life I must work. I have no complaints against work. To work is normal." "Yes, but the lack of work kills." "I have always worked," said the older waiter. "Go on to the meeting. There is no necessity to stay." "You are a fine friend", said the other waiter. "But you lack ingenuity." Cara had said nothing.
One of the businessmen could remember when he had been good and it had only been three years before. He could remember the pleasantries and the courtship. The good money and the praise. If there were women in the room he stared at them. If there were no women he would stare with enjoyment at a foreigner, but lacking women or strangers, he now stared with enjoyment and insolence at the two other businessmen.
The two other businessmen did not stare back at the other. One of them was saying, "I have spent a week here" out of boredom. Dull from his consistent drunken haze. "What is there to do?" "Nothing. What can one do? One cannot go against authority." "I have been here for awhile and nothing. I wait and they will not see me." "We are from the abandoned country. When the money runs out we can return." "To the abandoned country. Who cares for Dublin? It seems wholesome yet money flows in and out like a true island." "Dublin is where one learns to understand. Dublin destroys Ireland." "If they would simply see one and refuse." "No. You must be broken and worn out by waiting." "Well, we shall see. I can wait as well as another for a drink."