Matador Bar and Lounge

Lisa woke up on the side of the road and slowly took in her surroundings. Where the hell am I? Everything looked fuzzy for some reason. She must’ve bumped her head pretty hard. She tried to recall her last memory, but her head throbbed with the effort. A light breeze caressed the side of her face, and she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she finally recognized where she was. Her mood lightened a little as she gingerly got to her feet. She quickly checked herself to make sure there weren’t any physical injuries. It still bothered her slightly that she couldn’t remember what she was doing before she woke up, but she figured her memories would come back to her eventually. She instinctively reached into her pocket for her cell phone but found it was missing. Her momentary panic subsided, but she didn’t know why. She always said she couldn’t live without her phone, but suddenly it didn’t seem so important. Maybe she should at least find someone to get her some help.

           She walked down the path that was so familiar to her. No one was walking there though, which was a little odd. The path diverged and she went left. She smiled slightly to herself. She knew this path well. Shops and restaurants appeared on the sides of the path and the smells of food and car exhaust filled the air. Lisa walked a little further and stopped at one of the buildings on the corner of the street. The sign read “Matador Bar and Lounge”. She walked in and the bell chimed.

           A lady with dark hair and bright eyes greeted her from behind the counter. Lisa walked up to her and said, “Hey, could I get a margarita?”

           The bartender blinked once as though confused about the question. “We don’t serve those here.”

           Lisa felt like she’d been slapped in the face. She tried to keep her voice even and calm. “Oh, like you don’t have the ingredients or…?”

           The bartender didn’t respond, and Lisa sighed and continued, “I used to frequent this place a lot. Margaritas were my go-to.” She forced a smile but felt awkward and continued. “I guess… do you have anything with whisky?”

           “We don’t serve that here.”

           The bartender nodded her head to a sign on the wall that Lisa hadn’t noticed before. It said, “No alcohol allowed on these premises.”

           Lisa stared dumbfoundedly at the sign. “I-I must’ve missed that coming in. It didn’t used to be that way…” she responded stupidly.

           “That’s ok. We’ve changed owners so the sign’s new.”

           Lisa looked back at the bartender and narrowed her eyes. “Hey, I don’t think I know you. I guess they hired you when they… changed owners?”

           The bartender chuckled. “I just started here yesterday.”

           “Ah, that makes sense. I was gonna ask how Art’s doing, but you might not know him. He might not even work here anymore for all I know.”

           “Art’s good,” the bartender responded quickly.

           “Oh. That’s good.”

           Lisa looked around trying not to seem weird. She cleared her throat, “So… what can I get to drink?”

           “Anything you want. Except alcohol of course.”

           “Ok, I’ll get a virgin margarita then. It’ll make me feel like I’m drinking the real thing,” she said jokingly.

           “One glass of lime juice and simple syrup coming up.”

            The bartender turned her back and Lisa took the chance to look around. Everything looked exactly the way she remembered. The faded red wallpaper, the worn wooden stools and tables, and the giant bull head hanging over an unused fireplace were nostalgic to her. All of it was in place, except for the bartender and the “no alcohol” sign. Lisa looked back at the bartender.

           “So, why did your boss decide not to serve alcohol anymore? Tired of a bunch of drunk students?”

           “He’s actually planning on turning this into a smoke-free, alcohol-free restaurant. More families are starting to move in, and he wanted this establishment to be more ‘kid-friendly.’”

           “Huh. Seems a shame. This was the only good bar in town.”

           Lisa had probably spent more time here than she did in her own dorm room. She became good friends with the old owner and a few of the bartenders who worked the night shifts. Sometimes, she missed this town even though it basically had nothing to offer besides the university and the Matador Bar and Lounge. Even though the bar was quite average by big city standards, it held a lot of special memories for Lisa. She wished she could remember the details of even one of them.

           “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about an accident or something that happened, um, recently?”

           “Accident? No, I can’t say I have. Why?”

           “Just… curious. I thought that I heard someone talking about an accident or something.” Lisa didn’t know why she lied about that.

           “Maybe they were talking about an accident somewhere else,” the bartender replied perplexedly, placing the virgin margarita in front of Lisa. “This is a pretty uneventful town, I’ve noticed. I think word of an accident would travel quickly.”

Lisa took a sip of the virgin margarita. It was surprisingly close to the real thing. “Are you sure there’s no alcohol in this?”

“Positive,” the bartender replied slyly. Something about her smile made Lisa feel uneasy, but she returned it warmly.

“It’s pretty damn good for a virgin margarita.”

“I’m just good at my job,” the bartender said, her smile unwavering.

Lisa broke eye contact with her. Something about the woman’s eyes sparked a feeling of fear in her. They were almost too bright. She couldn’t even tell what color they were.

Lisa took another drink and sighed. “Truth be told, I seriously don’t know why I’m here.”

           The bartender scoffed, “Well, you wanted a drink, right?”

           “No. I mean, I can’t remember what I was doing before I walked into this bar.”

           A look of concern crossed the bartender’s face. “Oh. Should I take you to the hospital?”

           “No, no. I think I’m fine. Maybe I just had too much to drink last night or something and passed out. Wouldn’t be the first time,” she snorted.

           She looked around at all the empty booths and the empty bar.

           “Hey, where are all the patrons?”

           “I think it’s a little early maybe.”

           Lisa nodded, “When I went to school here, this place was always booming. Probably the ‘no alcohol’ thing has decreased the clientele.”

           “Oh, you were a university student?”

           “Yep. Graduated five years ago.”

           “What do you do now?”

           “I-“

           Wait, what did she do?

           “I’m an electrical engineer at ACom,” she heard herself say.

           “Oh wow! You did good for yourself.”

           “Yeah, I guess I did, huh?”

           Did she? She must’ve. Being an electrical engineer sounded pretty impressive. She wondered what else she had accomplished, or if she was married, or had kids, or-

           Oh god, Brandon! How could she forget about the love of her life? He’s probably so worried about her, especially if she wasn’t answering her cell phone. How long had she been gone? Here she was wasting time chatting with a non-bartender bartender instead of trying to find someone who could help her. A cold, oppressing feeling passed over her.

           “Do you have a phone?” asked Lisa anxiously.

           “No, unfortunately not.”

           What? Who doesn’t have a phone nowadays? “My-my husband. I need to get ahold of him. He’s probably worried sick.”

           The bartender looked at her blankly. Did she not understand? She had to call Brandon! Suddenly, memories flooded into her mind. A New Year’s party, the champagne, the mixed drinks, she and Brandon dancing together, she and Brandon taking shots with Kayla, she, Brandon, and Kayla leaving the party…

           “I need to go.” Lisa made to leave. A sickening sensation tightened a knot in her stomach. Just as she was about to step out the door, she spun around and walked back to the counter to pay.

           “It’s on the house,” the bartender said pointedly.

           “That’s good because I think I lost my wallet too. Nice meeting you…” She didn’t even know the bartender’s name.

           The bartender just stared back at her and didn’t reply. Lisa turned away, a little spooked, and hurried out of the bar.

It was nighttime and stars sparkled brightly above her; a full moon hung in the sky. When did it get dark outside? She walked to the side of the building to her car, got into the driver’s seat, and started down the dark road. The occasional streetlight flashed by as she pressed her foot further down onto the pedal. Her vision almost seemed to blur around the sides. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead, her palms felt sweaty, and her face was flushed. She shook her head, trying to focus on the road. Other headlights showed up on the road and streamed past her. How could she have forgotten about Brandon? They’d only been together for eight years. And Kayla, her best friend since high school. Lisa was sure Kayla was frantically trying to find her and had probably already called the police.

They’d been at a New Year’s party. Everything was starting to come back to her. It was a company party and she had brought Brandon as her plus one. Kayla worked for ACom as a software engineer, and she had come by herself. She and Mike had recently broken up and she wanted to use the New Year’s party as a night to momentarily forget her heartbreak. “New year new me!” she had cheered as they welcomed the new year with a glass of champagne. Or two glasses of champagne. Lisa didn’t remember how much they drank that night. She was supposed to be the designated driver, but Kayla convinced her to have just a few drinks and join in on the fun.

She felt the car sway as another car passed frighteningly close to her and she slammed the horn. Freaking crazy drivers, she thought. She turned to the passenger seat to tell Brandon about these crazy drivers on the road, but he was turned to the back seat, joking with Kayla about something. Their voices sounded muffled. Lisa just laughed along, even though she didn’t even know what they were laughing about. All the lights and the noises from the road seemed to fill her head until she thought it would explode. Damn, I should probably pull over. The house was so close though, that seemed ridiculous. The lights looked like bright lines; the horns and Brandon and Kayla’s laughter warbled in her brain. A feeling of elation and glee expanded inside of her like a balloon. Surely, life couldn’t get any better than this. She looked over at Brandon to tell him something, but he was looking out the windshield, his expression mortified. He opened his mouth to scream as Lisa turned back to the windshield to see two bright orbs of light glaring at her and she heard the wailing of a horn and then-

           The impact happened so quickly that she didn’t have time to react. The squealing of tires and the smell of burning rubber was all she could register. She and Brandon lurched forward, and the wind was knocked out of her as she felt an unimaginable pain shoot through her head. The sound of crunching metal was deafening, and she couldn’t even hear herself screaming. Then everything was silent. An immeasurable amount of time passed. She couldn’t tell if it was a few seconds or several hours. Everything was black. She could hear someone sobbing and the sound of raspy, gargling breaths. Were they hers? She tried to call for Brandon but couldn’t make a sound. Then, her senses seemed to dull, and the pain melted away.

           Lisa woke up on the side of the road, the sun shining brightly and warmly on her face. What an odd dream. She could swear she was in a car with… she couldn’t remember. She looked around, at first confused and slightly worried, but then she recognized where she was and smiled wistfully. She got up carefully, checking she wasn’t injured, and walked down the path that was all too familiar to her. She took the path to the left and eventually stopped in front of the building with the matador flashing a red cape at a charging bull and walked in. The bartender behind the counter smiled welcomingly and motioned to the barstool in front of her. Lisa sat down and looked around. Everything was in order, except for… she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

           The bartender walked up to her expectantly and Lisa looked into her bright eyes.

           “Hey, could I get a margarita?”