The Curse of Jager

Oh my head.
         What happened to me?
         Why the hell did I start drinking with those guys?
         I knew I shouldn’t have said ‘yes’ when they asked me if I wanted a drink.
         My mouth is so dry.  I better open my eyes and get some water. 
         Where the hell am I?  What’s this in my arm?
         Oh no, I didn’t do this again.  How the hell did I get so messed up that I ended up in here again?
         How can I have done this three times in less than six months?
         Sorry I’m freaking out over here, but I didn’t see you there.  I guess you’re probably wondering why you’re here in Aides’s hospital with me. 
         Well before I ended up in here, I decided that I wanted to tell people the story of my life here on Aides.  I figured that the people of Earth would love to hear the crazy shit I’ve been a part of since working at the place that makes Las Vegas look like a rinky-dink State Fair. 
         I guess no better place to start off than here at the hospital where I’ve spent some time at.
         So where do I begin?  Telling you that my name is Sebastian Nite and that I’m a bartender for Aides would help a little.
         I know that this is probably your first time here so I should tell you a brief history about Aides.          
         Aides is a planet that just appeared one day between the Earth and the moon.  Where did it come from?  No one has a real answer to that question.  Most scientists say that it’s been around since the creation of the Earth only hidden from all our eyes.  Then one day it just made itself visible for all of us to see and wonder about.  Truthfully, how it got here really doesn’t matter any more, the fact that it is here does.
         Ow.  My head really hurts but I asked for this.  I can’t just waste your time and not give you the story that you expected just because I decided to get messed up and ended up in here.
         So let’s move on.
         As soon as it was made public that Aides was another planet in our Earth’s orbit, Peter Givens, the richest person in the world, swung it some how with the government for them to sell him Aides.  He told everyone his plans of building an entertainment district that would surpass any on Earth: something so big that it could be seen from Earth at any time of the day.  No one believed him and some people even thought he was going crazy.  But ten years later he proved them all wrong.  The Black Hole, which Givens named the district, can now be seen from Earth not only during the night but also during the day. 
I, however, don’t know this for certain because I haven’t left Aides since its opening day, but I’ve had many people tell me this.
So if you’re here you should already know about the transporters that Givens installed in every airport on Earth; if it had planes flying in and out of it then it had a transporter.  This was another thing that people had a hard time believing possible, but once again Givens showed all of them.  He employed all the best scientist of the world to make something that hadn’t even been invented for Earth’s purposes.  Honestly, when I took my first transporter ride to Aides, I was scared out of mind because I didn’t know what to expect.  But it was actually nothing to it. 
Anyways, I should really move on to the reason you are here.  I hope that by the time I finish telling you this, I’ll be at the nearest bar enjoying my next shot.
*        *        *        *
         The transporter doors opened with light techno music playing from it.  Sebastian looked inside an elevator the size of the service ones he used at his last job; however, the extravagance of it was like nothing he had ever imagined an elevator to look like.  Every inch of it was covered in a black, glossy leather that glittered in the mild lighting coming from the large TV monitors along its walls.  Aside from the two parallel monitors closer to the doors which showed a map of the Black Hole, each of the monitors played random still photos of the development of the district.  Sebastian lifted his eyes to the ceiling and saw Aides in full view with the moon behind it and a cluster of stars in the background.  He stared at it hard not knowing if it was the real thing or just a picture.
         Stepping inside with the other people selected to work opening night, he realized that everyone, like him, didn’t know what to expect.  When the doors closed, each person became quiet as they waited to see what was going to happen next.
         Sebastian began feeling an odd sensation like pieces of him was being pulled apart, but before he had a chance to look at the others or himself everything went black.  No more than a second later, he found himself in a glass, rectangular chamber that showcased a hotel lobby outside of it.  On either side of him he saw these glassed rooms for as far as his eyes could see with an endless amount of people coming out of them.  He looked up and saw a circle of projector screens circling around displaying ‘Miami, Florida’ in dark red letters with various videos of Miami playing behind it.  Far above that, about six stories up, were large chandeliers that illuminated a light that seemed to match the sun’s own radiance.
         Sebastian stepped out of the transporter and saw a guy in a black suit directing all of them to a series of doors behind him.
         “I need all of you to go through those doors and clock in on any of the computers.  All you need to do is say your name directly at it and it’ll clock you in and tell you where you should head to.  Then go through the back doors to the individual transporters and just say where you are assigned to and you’ll be whisked there.  Thank you for being part of history and welcome to the Black Hole.”
         Sebastian walked through the door and saw computer monitors lined all along the walls.  He walked up to the nearest one and said his name.
         “Sebastian Nite.”
         “Sebastian Nite,” a female voice repeated as a picture of him showed up on the screen: the same picture, minus his platinum tips in his dreads and his dark, green contacts, he had sent with his application. 
“You are now clocked in,” the female voice continued.  “Welcome to the Black Hole.  You are to report to the casino.”
         “The Casino?  Alrighty then.”
         He walked through the back door and stepped into one of the many rows of individual transporters that looked like a smaller version of the one he had just left.
         “The casino, please.”
*        *        *        *
         Sebastian looked over at the people he was about to spend the whole night working with.  Even though their training had been unexpectedly short, he was able to familiarize himself with all of them very quickly.  One thing that all of them had in common, which he was thankful for, was the fact that they all seemed to have a brain in their head.
         His eyes fell on the two girl bartenders, Jasmine and Kí.  From past experience, he was surprised to see that the ratio of guys were more than girls.  When talking to Jasmine, it took some time for him to stop looking at her cleavage and pay attention to what she was saying, which ended up being nothing but complaints.  He drowned her out until he heard her talking about sex and then saw her straddling some beer cases that were on a flatbed.  Kî also talked a lot but it had mainly been about her or something to do with her.  For a little Oriental girl, she had quite a profane mouth, expressing everything and anything on her mind.
         The guys, on the other hand, were too busy preparing themselves mentally to be talking as much.  The only exception to this was August who was not only the oldest out of everyone but who had also spent the most time behind the bar.  Most of the things he talked about had to do with the vast amount of knowledge that he knew about the business.  Sebastian had listened to him intently, gaining information that he didn’t know before.  At first, he had thought that August was related to one of the barbacks named Alec because of their similar looks: their height of over six feet; their muscular features; and their clean, shaven heads.  But in actuality, Alec was the brother of the other barback, Malcolm, who looked nothing like him with his skinny body and his long dirty-blond hair.
         The one person that Sebastian had trouble figuring out completely was J.T.: the only person who didn’t have much to say to anyone.  He just stood there listening to everyone and only spoke when the conversation had to do with the night.  He now stared back at Sebastian with a look of certainty that he was there to make money and not friends.                         
          “All right guys,” Dexter, one of the managers said, breaking Sebastian out of his thoughts.  “I hope all of you are ready because we open to the public in just fifteen minutes.
         “You guys were hired because you can do this job quickly, efficiently and with minimal problems, so I want you to prove this to me tonight.  I want to give you guys a heads up that this is not only just the opening night but it is also your tryout period.  If you pass then you have a job for as long as you want, but if you fail you might as well pack your bags because we have thousands of people who can and will do a better job.  So I wish all of you good luck
         “Aside from that I want to stress to all of you guys to have fun with this.  We all know that this isn’t rocket science.  So I want you to not think of this as a job but as one big party.”
         “Does that mean we can drink?” Sebastian asked.
         Everyone turned their heads toward Sebastian not believing what he had just asked.
         “You can drink as much as you want and whatever you choose,” Dexter answered.  “But I want you to remember that no matter how messed up you get, you are still going to have to work.”
         A big, pearly white smile grew on Sebastian’s face as Dexter walked away.  He went to the cooler and pulled out the green, square bottle of Jägermeister.  The other bartenders watched him with a funny look as he grabbed seven glasses and poured a shot for each of them.
         “I don’t drink, Jäger,” Jasmine said.
         Sebastian turned to her, directing his eyes at her large breasts before catching himself and looking up at her face.  “Well guess what?  As long as I’m pouring it than we’ll be drinking this,” he said, handing everyone their glasses.
         He raised his glass up and said, “Here’s to dead drunks dying quickly.”
         “What is that suppose to mean?” August asked.
         “Long story short,” Sebastian said.  “I lost a few people a while back all in a year’s time.  Neither one of their deaths had to do with alcohol but all of them were drunks so I just made up this toast in memory of them.”
         “Well then I guess bottom’s up,” Malcolm said.
         All of them, even the doubtful ones, raised their glasses to the cheer and slammed the shots down.
         “Game On!” Sebastian said as he poured another round.  This time there were no complaints as they toasted to the night and drank up.  They then dispersed to their spots and readied themselves for what they imagined to be the busiest night that any of them had ever worked.
         Standing in front of his well, Sebastian looked around and was amazed that he was actually one of the chosen ones to be a part of this opening.  He looked behind him at the video waterfall tower that rose nearly to the ceiling.  It looked so real that as he stared at it he saw water splashing towards him in a 3-D effect.  The water flowed around various break-offs of music videos that coordinated with the music playing throughout the casino. 
         He turned his attention away from the tower and looked at the gaming area that circled the bar.  Nearest to the bar were a multitude of table games that looked to go as far back as a quarter of a mile.  Sebastian scanned all the dealers’ faces and saw a determined look in all of them to take as much money as they can from anyone who sat at their table.  Beyond the tables were rows upon rows of slot machines that seemed to add up to all the machines in Vegas.  Even from where he was at, he heard various noises coming from them as if it was a countdown till they receive that first bill.
         “This is going to be a memorable night,” he said as he poured himself a hefty shot and gulped it down.
         A few minutes after he said this, the doors opened up and a myriad of people came rushing in.  Most of them went instantly to the tables or the slot machines, and the rest of them went to the bar: about two thousand of them.  The bar was immediately encircled with twenty to thirty people deep in a line that went pass the tables.
         People were screaming orders nonstop.
         “I need a rum and coke.”
         “I need a blue L.I.T., a vodka cranberry and a mudslide frozen.”
         “Give me a Washington apple shot, two Bud Lights and a pina colada with Myers rum.”
         Sebastian moved faster than he had ever before: popping beers, pouring wine and making a numerous amount of drinks.  All of this was what he lived for.  The sweat that poured from his face proved it.  At first, he tried wiping it away, but he quickly realized that this was a waste of time.  So he let it fall wherever.  He even placed his dreads up in a bun in hopes that it would help lessen some of the heat. 
         He lifted up his eyes from his well and pointed to the guy directly in front of him.
         “What do you need?” he asked.
         “Jack and coke,” the guy answered.
         “I need your I.D.,” Sebastian said.
         “Why?” the guy asked.  “I scanned it at the transporter’s doors and it went through.  How else do you think I was able to transport here?”
         “Look I don’t care.  Either I see your I.D. or you get no drink.”
         “Fine,” the guy said as he lifted his sleeve up to display a tattoo of an exact replica of his I.D.
         “What the hell is that?” Sebastian asked, staring at his tattoo and trying not to laugh.
         “It’s my I.D.,” he answered with a straight face.  “I tattooed it on my arm so I never have to worry about losing it.”
         Sebastian smiled and shook his head before he replied back.  “I can’t take that.  Last I checked, a tattooed I.D. is not considered valid.”
         “Its me,” the guy said.  “I ran the bar code through the scanner and it took it.”
         “I don’t know how you got it to scan your arm, and I sure as hell don’t know how you were able to get the bar code tattooed so precise, but I can’t take that,” Sebastian said.  “You might’ve been allowed on Aides but you’re not going to be drinking any where in the Black Hole.”
         Sebastian turned around to his register and spoke into it.  “The guy in front of my well needs to go.  He’s having some issues with his I.D.”
         Not more than five seconds later, two football size security guards grabbed the guy on each arm and escorted him away from the bar.
         “Now whose next,” Sebastian said as he quickly got back into his groove.
         After some time had passed, Sebastian felt like his body was on auto-pilot, going through all the moves without even thinking about it.  Because of this he was able to notice how there were a lot of beautiful women going up to guys, talking to them and then leaving with them, hand in hand, in just a matter of minutes.  He knew instantly what their professions were.
         “Hey Malcolm,” he said as Malcolm walked up to him with a case of beers.  “Is it me or is there a bunch of hookers ‘round here?”
         “You just realized this?” Malcolm asked as he loaded the beer into Sebastian’s cooler.  “I already heard that one chick got busted by an undercover and when they gave her a cavity search they found a couple Gs rolled up inside of her.”
         “You’re shitting me?” Sebastian asked.
         “I couldn’t make that up if I tried,” Malcolm replied.
         “I heard about that too,” August said, walking up to the them with glasses that had a shot of a dark, brown liquor in them.  “They also said that she stunk so much that the cops giving her the cavity search nearly puked.”
         “Hey what are you guys doing back there?” a guy outside the bar asked.  “We all need drinks out here.”
         “And so do we,” August said as he handed off a glass to both Sebastian and Malcolm.
         “I only do Jäger,” Sebastian said.
         “Well, like you said before: as long as you’re pouring it, we’ll drink Jager.  But since I poured it we’ll be drinking Jack.”
         “What about the others?” Malcolm asked.
         “I’ll take care of that,” Sebastian said.  “You just get their shots ready.
         As August poured the shots, Sebastian grabbed a megaphone near his register and screamed through it.  “Water break!”
         “What’s going on?” Kí asked as her and the others rushed over to them.
         “August and I felt that after two hours of this, we needed a breather and something to quench our thirst,” Sebastian replied.
         “Are you guys just going to sit there messing around or get back to work?” the impatient guy said.
         “Well if you would quit bothering us, maybe we could take our shot and go back to dealing with assholes like you,” Sebastian said.  “But since you’ve interrupted us for the second time, I think its about that time to cut you off.”
         “I want to see a manager,” he said.
         “Leave my bar now or I’ll make sure you are literally thrown off this fucking planet!” Kí said.  “Fuck off!”
         The guy looked at them like he was going to say something else, but instead he just walked away.
         “Definitely not one of my methods for getting rid of people,” August said, “but highly effective.”
         Kí looked at August with a smirk on her face that told everyone she enjoyed yelling at that guy.
         “Can we get on with these shots?” Jasmine asked.  “There’s people to be served and lots of money to be made.”
         “Here’s to dead drunks dying quickly with their pockets full,” J.T. said.
         “Cheers,” they said simultaneously, throwing their glasses to the floor with a loud smashing sound and returning to their stations.
         “What do you want,” Sebastian said to the first person he looked at.
         “Hey we need fifteen red-headed sluts and a lit one-fifty-one for our military man,” a guy with platinum blond hair looking like Billy Idol said.
         Sebastian quickly made the fifteen sluts but he stopped before he poured the one-fifty-one in its shot glass.
         “You don’t want this lit,” he said.  “It can really do some damage to your insides.”
         “I can handle it,” the military guy said.  “I just came from fighting in the war.  Do you think a lil’ shot will get to me?  I’m a true man.”
         “I’m warning you,” Sebastian said, “you don’t want to do this.  You are going to be sorry afterwards, military man or not.”
         “Just let him,” Billy Idol look-a-like said.
         “All right then.  I warned you.”
         Sebastian poured the shot to the rim of the glass and placed it in front of the military guy.  He lit it on fire and stepped back as he watched the military guy pick it up.
         “Check this out,” Sebastian said to Malcolm and Alec who stood near by.
         “What’s going on?” Alec asked.
         “Just watch,” Sebastian said as he pointed to the group.
         “Cheers,” the military guy said as all of them collided glasses together.
         As the military guy pulled his glass back towards him, liquid began to seep out of it with the blue flame still coating it.  The flame seeped down to all his fingers and soon it engulfed his whole hand.  He cried out in pain as he slammed the shot glass down on the bar.     
         Sebastian, Malcolm and Alec stood there watching him and laughing.
         Before the flame had gotten pass his wrist, one of the girls in the group grabbed a glass of water and poured it over his hand.
         The Billy Idol guy blew out the remaining flames on the glass and handed it to his friend.
         “You gotta do it now,” he said.
         The military guy grabbed the shot and tossed it back.
         “You’re an asshole,” Alec said to Sebastian.
         “Why do you say that?” Sebastian asked.
         “Because you purposely filled that glass up like that because you knew he was going to spill it all over himself.”
         Sebastian smiled at him but didn’t say anything else as he went back to taking orders.
         “That guy is going to be completely fucked up in just a little bit,” Alec said to Malcolm as they walked away.          
         A couple of minutes later the military guy came up to Sebastian with droopy eyes that looked like he was about to take a nap on the bar.
         “Can—I get a—cup of ice,” the military guy asked Sebastian.
         Sebastian gave him the ice and saw that he couldn’t even keep his hand steady in it.
         “This hurts so much,” he said.
         “Are you fucking kidding me,” Sebastian said as he lifted up his sleeve and pointed to various scars on his forearm.  “I’ve had my whole entire arm covered in fire before, and I didn’t even come close to bitchin’ about it.  I knew the circumstances when I started messing around with fire.  What happened to you was nothing but complete stupidity on your part.”
         “Yeah I want to see what you do when your hand is on fire for a while.”
         “And you say that you were in the military,” Sebastian said angrily.  “That’s really hard for me to believe especially because of the fact that you’re such a pussy.”
         Sebastian grabbed the bottle of one-fifty-one and poured it over his hand.  He took out his Zippo and lit it on fire.  A blue flame covered his whole hand and Sebastian stood in front of the military person not moving at all.  They both watched as the fire continued to burn on Sebastian’s hand.  Soon his hand began shaking uncontrollably and he held it for a few more seconds before he shook it out.
         The military guy stared at Sebastian and knew he was beat.  He got up and stumbled away from the bar still trying to keep his hand in the cup of ice.
         “Hey can we get a blue martini and a cosmopolitan,” a couple asked to the right of Sebastian.
         He shook off thoughts about the military guy and got to work on their martinis.  When he was done, he walked up to them with the drinks and was shocked to see that the girl had one leg propped on top of the bar and the other in the air while the guy had his face between them.  Sebastian couldn’t believe that the people around them cared more about their drinks than noticing what the couple was doing.
         “That’ll be nineteen dollars,” he said as he placed the drinks to the side of them.
         The guy kept his face buried as he threw two twenties on the bar.  Sebastian walked away, rang up the drinks and threw the rest of the money in the tip bucket figuring that the couple would be too busy to worry about their change.
         “I gotta take a break,” he said as he walked off the bar before anyone responded.
         Outside he tried to relax but he was so hyped up with how the night was going that he couldn’t sit still.  He enjoyed every minute of it but he never expected anything like a night like this.  Even being away from the bar, he couldn’t get the remnants of  the people screaming out of his head.
         “Hey you want a hit?”
         Sebastian turned and looked down at a dealer sitting in the corner with a crack pipe in one hand and a lighter in the other.
         “Are you nuts?” Sebastian asked as he looked around to see if anyone was looking towards them.  “They’ve got cameras all over the place.”
         “The last place their paying attention to is out here in the employee section,” the dealer said.  “They have better things to watch than us.  So do you want a hit our what?”
         “Nah, not my kind of poison,” Sebastian said as he walked away.
         “Fine with me,” the dealer said as he lit his pipe and inhaled a hefty amount of smoke.
         When Sebastian got back to the bar, it was still swamped with people.  He got back to his well and felt like he had never left.
         A few minutes later he looked up and saw the dealer who had offered him crack; he was standing behind a blackjack table.  Even from where he was at, Sebastian saw him dealing out the cards like he was in permanent slow motion while swaying back and forth.  As he was about to turn his attention back to his own customers, he saw the dealer crash on to the table spreading chips all over the place.
         Casino workers rushed over to the table and the people who had been sitting there watched as they tried to revive him.  Sebastian took one more look over there before he got bored and concentrated on the screaming people in front of him.
         Is this ever going to end, he thought after another hour had passed.
         “Time Out!” he screamed as he placed his hands into a T.  He picked up a full Jäger bottle and began walking around the bar.
         “Freeze,” he said as he got to August.
         August stopped in the middle of making a drink and Sebastian handed him the bottle.  August took a big chug out of it and handed it back to Sebastian who did the same thing.  As August went back to work, Sebastian continued his walk around the bar until he had forced everyone to stop what they were doing and take a drink out of the bottle.
         By the time he got back to his own well, he was feeling the effects of the six heavy shots he had just taken. 
         “Where have you been?” one lady said in front of his well.  “I’ve been waiting here for an hour.”
         Sebastian stared at her drunkenly before he answered.
         “Actually ma’am I hadn’t been gone that long.  Tops it was ten minutes, so you’re a tad bit off.  And secondly, if you didn’t want to wait then you should have gone to another bartender or, for my benefit, to another bar.”
         “You’re an asshole,” she said as she walked away through the crowd.
         “Why yes I am,” he said with a huge smile on his face.
         “Now serving number sixty-nine,” he screamed out.  “Do we have a number sixty-nine?
         “You there,” he pointed to a tall, Hispanic woman.  “You’re my next contestant.  What can I get for you?”
         “I don’t know,” she said with a mild Hispanic accent.  “What do you have that’s sweet?”
         “Well I have myself,” he said.
         “Do you have something sweet I can drink?” she asked with a smile.
         Sebastian snickered at her but didn’t say anything as he quickly made her a drink and watched her walk away.
         “Now whose next?” he screamed.
         He knew that was a bad question to ask but he was ready for the many responses he got.
         “Hey can I get a rum and coke?” a guy screamed.
         Sebastian looked over at the guy and was struck back by his clear white eyes, his long, silky, black hair and the two front fangs that he had no problem displaying.
         “Let me guess, you want a pint of blood?” Sebastian asked.
         “What?”
         “Nothing,” Sebastian replied.  “What kind of rum do you want?”
         “Whatever,” the vampire guy said.
         “Honestly, I should really make a brand of liquors called ‘whatever’.  With the amount of times people ask for it, I would make a fortune.”
         “Are you talking to me?” the guy asked.
         “No, just thinking out loud,” Sebastian answered as he poured a random rum and coke and handed it to the guy.
         “That’ll be thirty dollars.”
         “What?” the vampire guy said.  “I just wanted a regular rum and coke.”
         “Well you said ‘whatever’ and to me that means whatever I grab is what you’re willing to have,” Sebastian said.  “So that’ll be thirty dollars please.”
         The guy reached in his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash and threw it at Sebastian.
         “You’re Sebastian, right?” the guy asked.
         “Yeah, who wants to know?”
         “Roscoe told me about you, and he told me to drop off a gift for you.”
         “You know Roscoe?” Sebastian said as he handed him back his change.
         “Yeah he told me you would be an asshole to me unless you knew who I was,” the guy said.
         “Well he was wrong about that because even if I did know you I would still be an asshole.”
         “Well in that case, my name is Victor,” he said as he held out his hand for Sebastian to shake.
         As Sebastian shook his hand, Victor handed him something.
         “Enjoy,” Victor said as he walked away without even looking back.
         Sebastian opened his hand to a rolled up twenty dollar bill.  He walked over to his register and when he unwrapped the bill, two blue pills fell out.
         “Oh shit,” he said as he quickly picked them up.
         He looked at the time on the register and saw that he had forty-five minutes left of his shift.
         “Oh boy, better late than never,” he said as he popped both pills in his mouth.  He grabbed the near empty bottle of Jäger and gulped down the rest with the pills.  Afterwards he threw the bottle to the floor, causing green shards to fly all over.
         “All you guys better get your drinks now, because I don’t know how long it’ll be before I feel the need not to serve any of you anymore.”
         People screamed at him horrendously for drinks and fifteen minutes later Sebastian began to feel the effects of the roll.
         He stopped in the middle of the drink he was making and backed up to get a full view of all the people screaming for him.  He smiled a big smile and watched all their faces as they were perplexed at the fact that he wasn’t doing anything.
         “You all right,” Malcolm asked.
         “Yeah, I dropped a couple of rolls a few minutes ago and there hitting me big time.”
         “Come on, Sebastian, hold up just for thirty minutes and we’ll be done,” Malcolm said. 
“Here take some of this,” Malcolm said as he handed him a new bottle of Jager.
Sebastian grabbed the bottle and took a swig out of it.
“You’re right that does make me feel better.  It kicks in my roll even more,” Sebastian said.  “How long more do we have left?”
         “Now just twenty-seven minutes,” Malcolm replied.
         “I can do this,” Sebastian said as he stepped in front of his well and attempted to take people’s orders.
         “What was that again?” Sebastian asked.
         “I just wanted two glasses of water,” a lady said.
         “Oh, yeah,” Sebastian said as he felt a tingling feeling all over his body like little insects were walking up and down him.
         “Can I get a long island?” another lady asked after he had poured the waters.
         “L.I.T.,” Sebastian said.  “No prob.”
         Sebastian grabbed all four bottles, two in each hand, and poured the liquor into the glass.  Instantly after starting the pour he closed his eyes and passed out.  He slept there for a couple of seconds before he heard something sounding like it was coming from far away.
         “Excuse me, sir,” the L.I.T. lady said.  “Sir, are you awake.”
         Sebastian slightly jumped up, but continued pouring.  He looked down at the glass and saw liquor overflowing to the top and all around the bar.  He set the bottles down and turned around to see Malcolm on the floor laughing his ass off.
         He looked back at the lady and couldn’t say anything but, “That’ll be nine seventy-five, please.”
         Sebastian wanted so badly to stop working and just sit down and let the roll take full control of him but he knew that he had to at least finish his first night.  After coaxing himself to take control of his body, he finally was able to.  He got drinks out to people but it was no where close to the speed he had at the beginning of the night.
         By the time his replacement had come, the roll was kicking in so much that he left the bar without saying anything to anyone.
         When the other bartenders found him, he was sitting in a corner by the individual transporters staring at nothing.  In one hand he had a large bottle of water and in the other he had a small bottle of Jäger.  Sweat was pouring of his body and he looked to them like he was in a constant state of euphoria.
         “You all right?” Kí asked as she slowly walked up to him.
         “Yeah, I’m feeling awesome,” he replied.  “I just needed to get out of there before I flipped out.  I don’t know if its because of being on this planet or what, but I’m feeling like I’ve never felt before.  I can hardly keep my head up to talk to you guys.  I just need to get out of here.”
         “Do you know that we’ve combined all our years of bartending together, which came to about fifty-five years and none of us have ever heard of someone falling asleep while making a drink,” J.T. said.
         “I did that?” Sebastian asked.
         “You don’t remember that?” August asked.
         “I don’t,” Sebastian answered.  “But if I don’t remember it than it didn’t happen.”
         All of them looked at him worriedly but didn’t say anything as he grabbed his share of the money and left.
         “Sebastian Nite,” he said when he got to the time clock.
         “You are now clocked out,” the computer said.  “Thank you for working tonight and have a good day.”
         “Oh I surely will.”