“Hey,” Gray Goatee said.
“Hey,” Ike said without turning his head.
“How you doing?” Gray Goatee slurred.
“I’m alright, man,” Ike said. He searched for Tex but he was taking a large drink order from a group of blue-, pink-, and green-haired androgynous white kids that had just wandered into the bar.
“All these little young bucks up in here. Too damn young, too damn crazy,” Gray Goatee said. His words fell out of his mouth like marbles rolling off the edge of a table.
“Uh-huh.” Ike said.
“I’m Angelo,” the man with the gray goatee said. Ike didn’t respond. He put his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet.
“They fun, but what’s the point? A couple hours of groaning and moaning for what? So they can just leave in the morning after pissing all over your toilet seat,” Angelo said. He listed to his left before grabbing the rail on the edge of the bar and righting himself. Ike took a step to the right away from him.
“You with somebody?” Angelo asked.
“I’m just paying my tab, man,” Ike said. He spoke through pursed lips, turning the sentence into one long word.
“Sure, sure, you probably with somebody. You too fine not to be,” Angelo said.
“Hey Tex! Get my tab, man!” Ike yelled.
“You going? Hey wait, let me buy you a drink. Don’t go yet. Let me get you a drink,” Angelo said. He reached out and put his hand on Ike’s forearm.
“Get your fucking hands off me, man,” Ike said. The two brothers at the other end of the bar picked up their drinks and moved to the beanbags. The thunder in Ike’s voice promised a storm that they wanted no part of at all. Angelo’s radar didn’t seem to be attuned to the changing weather.
“Hey now, don’t be like that. I just want to get to know you,” he slurred. He moved his hand up Ike’s arm toward his coconut-sized biceps.
“I told you, get the fuck off me!” Ike snatched Angelo by the front of his shirt. The barstool went skittering across the floor as Ike slammed Angelo against the far wall. A picture of Judy Garland in a top hat and tails fell from the wall. It bounced off Ike’s head but he hardly noticed. Angelo’s eyes rolled around in their sockets as Ike cinched in his grip and lifted him off his feet.
“I’m sorry!” Angelo said over and over.
Ike pulled him off the wall only to slam him against it again twice as hard. Angelo tried to pry Ike’s hands from around his neck, but he might as well have been trying to untie the Gordian knot.
“I told you, don’t fucking touch me!” Ike yelled. He held Angelo in place with his left hand while cocking back his right. The group of emo kids that had just entered the bar pulled out their cell phones and started yelling at him as they began recording the confrontation.
Seconds before he unloaded his hammer of a right, he felt strong hands gripping his shoulders and powerful arms wrapping around his waist. Ike felt himself being pulled off balance. He let go of Angelo and pawed at his attackers.
“Fuck off of me!” Ike grunted. He felt himself being pushed backward. He was being herded toward the door like a rampaging bull. A third set of hands had joined the fray. It was Chris.
Tex hollered at him to back off, but he might as well have been trying to soothe a swarm of hornets. Chris’s face was a storm of ferocity. Were he and Angelo friends? Was he defending the man’s honor? Or was he just righteously pissed? Ike had come into a place where Chris and his friends felt completely at ease and asked for their help. They had given him a glimpse into the man that Isiah had become. A good man that Ike had little hand in creating. How had he repaid their kindness? He’d jacked up a lonely drunk. Ike saw Buddy Lee running toward him out of the corner of his eye. Buddy Lee gave Chris a shove and got between him and Ike.
“What the fuck, man?” Buddy Lee cried.
Ike stopped fighting.
“I’m going, okay?! I’m going. Buddy Lee, get my debit card, man,” Ike said. Tex released him. Another man, a brother in a matching white too-tight T-shirt, was holding Chris at bay as he tried to get to Buddy Lee. Tex grabbed Ike’s card from behind the bar and slapped it into his hands.
“Get the hell out of here before I call the cops,” he said.
“I thought you said you didn’t like cops,” Buddy Lee said.
“Get the fuck out!” Tex said.
“Come on, hoss, let’s go before Johnny Law gets here,” Buddy Lee said. He took a few steps backward before spinning on his heel and heading for the door. A few people booed as they walked by. Ike saw Jeff gazing at him from across the bar.