There is a vibrant bar scene in the Oakland district around the University of Pittsburgh.
Nikki is a sociology major. She's been bartending here at the Sanctuary three years now and she likes it. The tips on certain nights make it all worthwhile. She enjoys the music and the atmosphere. The day time crowd is very different from the night time crowd. The day crowd wants to eat and drink. The night crowd wants to party. Men are her biggest tippers because she's a woman. They wouldn't tip a man as much. She flirts. It's harmless enough. She talks to them. She never wears anything low cut so that when she bends down to wash glasses or to pull a beer out of the cooler the men can see her breasts. It's not that kind of bar. It's a student bar and during the day a lot of faculty comes in, too. She's worked in places where the manager wanted you to wear your hemline way up to here and your top cut way down to there and the places were all right and the money was really good but she felt more like a stripper than a bartender. And she's a bartender. A damn good bartender. Here she can be a bartender. It's a college bar, see? So she's really put out to hear that the place is going to close down soon.
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This is a new story written after the publication of Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories.
A matter of fact presentation which is appropriate for the story. I like the pace of it. It builds up at the end and falls quickly with the closing of the bar. The ending hits you hard, but it does not seem forced at all. It is as it should be. Good work.
's a pity it will close down. that's life for you. the others stay open many years longer. she's a student we admire cause she's got a brain and some limits to what she'll do. luck
Soldier's Gap is a non-traditional mystery with literary elements. The high school principal is brutally murdered, but Deputy Sheriff Dave Jenkins's search for meaning and love is a much more significant theme.
"Murder isn't usually this fun
'Coruscated Confabulations' is a collection of stories and experiences, most of which took place in prior decades. They are taken from or based upon real events, with a certain admixture of fictional embellishments.
