Crosby set the remote down, giving up on changing the channel back to the game. She’d seen some weird things happen to the satellite when the winter storms kicked up, but it had always been something like large, pixelated blobs, ghost images, or shutting down altogether. Having every channel decide to be the same network was a new one.
She’d never been a fan of any of the late-night hosts. They were, to a man, smarmy opportunists looking to ingratiate themselves with people more famous than themselves. Couldn’t they find a single woman to host one of these things? There had to be a smarmy opportunist with a vagina out there somewhere, and they deserved a shot as much as the men.
She ignored the show as Johnny was going on about his guests coming up, but quickly found that she had nothing else to do. Sarah was back in the office, doing whatever the hell she did back there, since there weren’t any tables for her to wait. Their only customer of the night was currently in the toilet, and a quick glance at the clock said he’d be gone for a few more minutes, anyway. Ernie was the most regular of regulars – came in at 5 pm every night but Tuesday, took the stool on the end by the TV, and drank six beers and six whiskeys throughout the night. Around 8:30, after finishing his third beer and whiskey and whatever was left in the peanut bowl, he’d toddle off to the pot and be in there for about five minutes, before coming back for the second half. Watched any sport she put on but was particularly interested in any hockey game.
And far too many nights lately, he was it. No danger of shutting down, since the loggers still came by for dinner pretty much every day, and they could survive purely on them alone if they had to. But it used to be that the Bar was full every night, as pretty much the only place people had to go. People would gather around the big TVs and watch the game, or if there wasn’t a game going on, they’d been known to flout the copyright laws and screen whatever movie she was interested in. That was back when the town was full, with nearly 600 residents. It had been falling for years, and since the Dearborns moved away after old Jake died, the population was down to 312 total people. Of those 312, over 200 had become card-carrying members of the Church of the Rapture, and they weren’t coming by to drink anymore.
She heard the door to the bathroom open, but didn’t have the energy to even glance over at Ernie. She knew what she’d see – the 70-year-old former logger was a bit hunched, but still looked to have most of his strength. He always seemed to have three days’ worth of beard, although it seemed that the grey whiskers just wouldn’t grow any longer. The dark skin of his face was wrinkled and marked with age spots, but his eyes were clear and steady. And what she knew they were focused on, before he could say a word, was the lack of a sporting event on the TV. The Nanooks had been on before the TV went nuts, tied 1-1 going into the last intermission, and she knew that she was in for an earful if it wasn’t on.
She was unsurprised when he said, before even sitting back down, “Hockey not good enough for you, Crosby?” He immediately reached for the remote to change the station, and Crosby decided to just let him try to figure it out. It quickly became clear that he couldn’t do anything about it either, when he said, “The hell’s wrong with your TV?”
“Well, I’m sure I don’t know Ern. It was working just fine before you came out.”
“Sure it was, darlin’, sure it was. I know you don’t watch this stuff either – if your little sis was out tending bar I’d expect it, but not you. You got a better head on your shoulders than that.” She rolled her eyes at this, although she did agree that her sister would be interested. The two were similar in so many physical ways – both tall and athletic, with the same wide jaws, narrow noses, and apple cheeks, the same brown eyes and long, curly brown hair. But somehow, Sarah was always the pretty one, while she was the one who looked “mannish”. Sometimes she was sure this was true, and sometimes she was sure that it was just because her sister was straight, and she wasn’t. True or not, though, it was the accepted opinion around town, and nothing she could do would change it. It didn’t matter much, she thought, since being the only lesbian in a city of 200 religious zealots and a bunch of lumberjacks meant it didn’t really matter what she looked like.
“Well, shit,” she heard Ernie say, and broke out of her musing. She turned to look, and found he was staring at the TV, enraptured by whatever was on Tonight! She looked at the screen, and was struck by the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. She was thankful that the bar was right behind her so she could lean back, because the sight of the woman was enough to make her knees slightly weak. She realized that the same could be said for Ernie, and that it was a good thing that he was sitting on the stool.
On the screen, the woman and Johnny were bantering about going off somewhere together at the end of the show. A flare of jealousy hit her, the biggest surprise of the night. She hadn’t even been jealous when she caught Carla fooling around with one of the loggers – pissed, absolutely, enough to throw her out, but this kind of jealousy was new to her. Directed at a man she had never met over a woman she had never met made it that much stranger.
Ernie had put the remote down, more interested in the woman on screen than getting back to hockey. This would have normally been a huge shock for her, but she was in no condition to wonder about him. Something about this woman called to her, body and soul. Her voice penetrated deep, even before she comprehended the words being said.
But the words did sink in, and when they did, the attraction was tinged with revulsion. The woman's face, so perfect, was also terrible to behold. Her eyes had become a fiery red, and the shadows around her face made her seem gaunt and treacherous. Her voice was cold, and her words more so - the end of the world, with her as the harbinger. Unrealizing, she reached out to Ernie, taking his hand in hers, needing some sort of touch to ward off the cold. When the woman's face brightened, and she mentioned having fun, a spell was broken, and she pulled her hand back. Whether Ernie had noticed or not was unclear - he hadn't so much as twitched since his last outburst.
The two sat in stunned silence as Johnny called for a commercial. The studio faded, and as a commercial started up, they heard footsteps running from the back room. Sarah - pretty, perky Sarah - burst through the door. She saw the two of them staring at the TV, and said, "Thank God you saw it, too."
