Tonic and Glares

            "Tonic and Glares"


        Jamie pats the mic, and coughed a little as she got up onto the stage.  “Is this on?”  A couple people in the audience coughed.  Someone laughed, expectantly.  “I guess it is.”  The sign behind her read, “Laugh away” It looked crooked, behind her large back, which looked spacious, from all the smoke being blown from the tables below the stage.
          As if on camera in every comedy skin Jamie had ever seen on TV Jamie saw silhouettes of shiny people lazily sitting with seductive glares on their relaxed faces ready to be amused staring expectantly at Jamie.  The image of this spinning in Jamie’s head.
          She smiled, hoping it would win her a few teammates. A couple people brought their wine glasses to their mouths.  They looked like robots, with wine glasses for eyes.  Glaring robots were drinking in her nervousness.
    “So, anyone ever make alcoholic drinks?”
  There was silence.
“I hear, it’s a very good tonic.”
Jamie took out a harmonica, and began to play three different chords.  “Get it?  Tonic, as musical triad?”  She puffed on the harmonica.  She laughed at her own joke.

Somebody coughed, and blew smoke into the room.  Jamie could feel the sweat from somebody in the room, oozing onto her skin.

“Ok, tonic, anyone need a tonic Toe nick?  Nick your toe?  I got some toe clippers.”  She took out some toe clippers and started clipping her toes on stage.  The bar echoed with sounds of her toe nails clipping, like bugs being crushed, the horrible agony of a small life slipping away quickly with no mercy.  And when it was over, someone blew smoke, as if in relief, and Jamie put the mic back in the holster.
Silence is a great healer.

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