Slick

The stranger with the soft drawl drops a nickel in the jukebox and the familiar strains of Patsy Kline's Walkin' After Midnight fill every corner of the smoky canteen. Stern, suspicious faces relax, some even begin to smile. You can make a lot of new friends with Patsy Kline.

“Buy you a beer, Slick?” Sparrow offers and extends his hand.

“Don't mind if I do,” the stranger says agreeably although it comes out “Don' mah'n if Ah do.” He accepts the handshake and Sparrow nods to old Bill behind the counter then slides over to make room in the cracked leather booth. The stranger joins us with a lazy grin and a tip of his cowboy hat.

“Ma'am,” he nods to me, “How ya'll doin'.”

Johnny gives me a swift kick beneath the tabletop to stir my manners.

“Shut yer mouth, girl,” Sparrow rumbles, “You'll catch flies.”

“Oh, sorry,” I manage to say. I'm having trouble because the stranger bears an unsettling resemblance to Paul Newman and I'm thinking his blue eyes could surely get a girl into trouble. As if he could read my mind - and is used to such reactions, I suspect - he gives me a friendly wink.

“No cause to worry, ma'am,” he tells me, “Ah'm as harmless as they come.”

Johnny's between me and the door and there's no place to run. Worse, no way to stop the blush I feel rising like a hot cloud. I make a show over lighting an Export but fumble the match and Johnny has to steady my hands. Pull yourself together! a disgusted and violently embarrassed voice in my head is yelling, Jesus, will somebody make some small talk!

Sparrow does exactly that and I feel myself cringe with relief. I don't hear much of it because of the roaring in my ears but at least the heat on my face is cooling off and presently I'm able to take a breath and lift my head again. That's the moment when I realize that the stranger, Sparrow and Johnny are all chatting amiably and no one is paying me the slightest attention.

Imagine that. Making a fool of yourself over a stranger with a southern drawl and Paul Newman eyes isn't fatal. Not even at sixteen.