“If you know what’s good for ya, you’ll knock it off. You don’t mess with a classic, see?” came a gruff voice from the shadows. I wasn’t worried, most of these tough guys weren’t so tough once the chips were down. “What’s it to ya, bub?” I shot back, slipping my hand in my pocket, casually, “It’s my liquor, my glass…my town.” He stepped forward into the dim glow of the streetlight, his fedora still hid his eyes but I could see the stubble on his chin when he opened his mouth to say, “Drinking can be bad for your health. A lot of guys don’t realize that…” the words just hung there, a challenge. I did not know what to do. I mean, I wasn’t scared of this two-bit character clearly imagined for an opening paragraph only to be forgotten later, but I was also in a bit off a hurry. Still, if word got out that I’d gone soft, it would be nothing but headaches from every punk with a boston shaker and a shiny new jigger. “You sure seem interested in other folks business, mister. You got any peer reviewed evidence to back up that smart mouth?” He looked me up and down. I could feel him sizing me up, trying to decide if that lump in my pocket was the proverbial banana or something more sinister. He tipped his hat back, wide-eyed, “Look, I don’t want any trouble, mister. Louie slipped me a fiver to give you that message. Honest. I’m just trying to make a living, hitting my marks and telling the truth. I didn’t mean nothing by it.” I eyed him. He looked like an honest kid, once he got over playing it the hard way. I gave him the head nod, dismissing him. As he ran away, after him, “The classics were made to be experimented with. That’s part of the charm, you fool. They are the very basis of our cocktail lexicon and if we don’t mess with them we stagnate…slowly dying…here in the fog.” But he did not hear me, he’d already moved on to the next part. Bit characters never get it, they don’t hang around long enough to learn anything. Not like us real characters, the ones with names, the kinds of guys and dolls who get mentioned in the credits as they stand and make the Daiquiri Noir.
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