As much as shame had wanted to rear its head in him at the thought of how far he had fallen, Thomas ignored it as he headed to the bar.
After asking for the price of a pint and being certain that he could afford five, Thomas ordered.
Two pints of beer were already swimming nicely in his blood before he finally looked at his surroundings.
A gaudily dressed woman was dancing close to the screeching jukebox on the other side of the bar.
She plucked the money out of a drunken man's hand while avoiding his groping hands.
Smoke, drunken voices, and scattered laughter filled the room, while the owner fanned himself behind the bar.
In Lost Horn's bar, nobody served anybody.
If you want a drink, you come to the bar to get it.
If you are important enough, the owner or his daughter will bring the drinks to your table.
Thomas lazily wondered if the owner's daughter was still around.
She used to be quite the slut.
He was about to turn to his drink when he saw that he might get lucky after all.
A bitch was giving him the eye.
"Why not?" he thought to himself as he corked his hand at her.
He wondered if she would try to be coy and was ready to turn away to show her that he did not have the time for bullshit that night.
But she came immediately.
"What do you want, love?" she asked in a flirty tone.
Thomas didn't bother with talks.
He simply grabbed her breast with one of his hands, spun her around with his other hand, and made her sit on his lap.
"What are you doing?!" the lady suddenly screeched.
"So, you like to play games, eh?" Thomas said with a leery grin as he held her waist none-too-gently and made her grind on him.
A rush of air accompanied the mighty blow that had his ear ringing in the next second.
Pain shot through him as he struck his side hard against the concrete bar.
His left elbow seemed paralysed for a moment as the flirt ran from him and screamed, "Jeff, thank God. Jeff, you need to teach this bastard a lesson!"
What?
"Are you cheating on me, Missy?" a heavy voice asked, and the flirt screeched again in protest.
"I would never do that! He grabbed me!"
That sealed Thomas's fate.
As Thomas was turning to face the man, a fist twice the size of a ham struck him full on his face, breaking his nose and bruising his face.
Thomas groaned in pain as he fell off the stool he was on.
"What the fuck, man? She came on to me!" He managed to croak out.
Grave mistake.
"You calling my girl a liar?" The man called Jeff, who seemed to have a kinship with a gorilla in size, said as he lifted Thomas off the ground and punched him in mid-air.
When Thomas realised that he might have bitten off more than he could chew and tried to run out before the man got to him, two men blocked his path to the door.
They folded their arms in wait for him.
"You want to pass? Come on, pal. Pass," one of them said.
Jeff was already behind Thomas, so he decided to fight for his life.
That was his third mistake of the night.
Jeff looked at the side of his stomach where Thomas's punch had landed. Before he could finish raising his head to look at Thomas, double kicks had landed on him from the man behind.
For the worst twenty minutes of Thomas's life, the three men passed him among themselves like a ball.
All while everyone around kept having their drinks like nothing was happening.
If the fight got too close to them, they would simply carry their drink and move elsewhere.
Finally, the owner of the bar roused himself from where he was seated.
He called out to Jeff in a reasonable tone as he said, "If this keeps going on, Jeff, all my customers will have to sit on the floor to have their drinks. That includes you, Jeff. Take it outside."
"Don't worry, Mal. I am done with this piece of trash," Jeff said as he spat on Thomas, who was lying facedown on the scarred floor like a dead man.
So saying, Jeff's men lifted him while holding his underarms.
Each of them on either side dragged him out of the door.
The windy chill outside was a far cry from the offensive heat in the small building.
They threw him aside like a sack of potatoes and went back inside without a second glance at him.
One of them swatted at the drop of moisture that fell on him.
The little breath that was left in Thomas was knocked out as he fell to the uneven ground close to the road.
As if grieving the unfortunate moment that befell the unconscious man, the sky opened up almost immediately.
A drizzle soon became a downpour.
*********
Reyona woke up the next day without the headache that had been her constant companion.
Nor did she feel the panic of helplessness that had been accompanying her since she woke up.
Every time she slept and woke up, she had this feeling that was akin to a panic attack as she tried to figure out where she was and how she had gotten there.
Slowly, it would pass, but it was always there.
But the day after the lawyer came, she did not feel the helplessness of her loss of memory as acutely as she had been feeling it earlier.
Reyona felt a slight weight at her side and she smiled as she turned her head gingerly to that side.
Toria was sleeping as Toria slept.
One of her legs was on the side of the bed, while her head was close to Reyona's stomach and her arms were spread out over the bed.
How she had managed to get into that position on the huge bed was beyond Reyona.
She was amazed that her sister had somehow steered clear of her injured legs, even in sleep.
Sleeping with Toria means waking up during the night to see her legs or arms all over you.
As Reyona let out a quiet laugh at that thought, she remembered how Toria had ended up sleeping in her bed.
Just as everyone was bidding her goodnight the night before, Reyona had invited Toria to sleep with her.
Toria, who must have understood what Reyona needed, told the nurse that she could go rest in the room allotted to her.
"I can take care of my sister for one night. I have been doing it for most of my life anyway," she said with a cheeky smile, and their parents, who were on their way out, snorted in disbelief.
"I am highly underestimated in this family," Toria grumbled as she got into bed while making sure not to jostle Reyona's leg.
"Have I told you that I think I was adopted?" she asked with a mock-serious face.