It
was a slow night. Midweek usually is.
Pete had wiped down the bar for the 6th time.
BarCat nursed his drink while catnapping between patrons
walking in and out.
A
man and a woman walked into the bar and sat down next to Barcat.
They both order a shot with a beer chaser.
Neither of them seemed to notice BarCat as they were deep in
an important conversation.
They were discussing, of all
things, Atlantis. The
woman kept saying it was in the Mediterranean, while the man was
tossing out all sorts of preposterous ideas.
It was in the Bahamas, it was on a planet surrounding
Sirius, it was in the Atlantic, it was in Patagonia.
The two of them kept arguing for two hours, ordering shots
and beer chasers. The
more drunk they got, the louder they got and the more stupid the
conversation got. They
were out and out obnoxious after a bit.
The man then suggested that maybe by going back in time they
would be able to confirm their "theories."
Yea, said the woman, I wish that could happen, as then maybe
you would shut up and admit you have no idea what you are talking
about. She had
insisted all along that Atlantis was by the Pillars of Herakles.
Then it came out that they were both Sorcerers.
He started discussing using magic to time travel.
She was skeptical at first, and as the conversation went on
for another half hour, and they really were shitfaced by this time,
she was more and more sure they could do this.
The conversation, however, continued for another half hour
arguing the best method to execute the magical trip. Loud,
obnoxious and as far as BarCat was concerned, it was disturbing his
catnaps.
BarCat had enough.
He granted her wish.
Within a few minutes, the two dismounted from the barstools,
the man threw a couple of bucks on the counter as a tip and the two
staggered up the stairs and out into the street.
A couple of
weeks later, with a show on the TV about Atlantis, Pete made a
comment to BarCat about the two sorcerers.
They hadn't been back.
Maybe they really did figure out how to time travel.
He then laughed.
More than likely they ended up on a train to Hoboken and
have yet to figure out how to get back.
BarCat smiled.
Yes, it would be a one way trip, he thought to himself.
The man got part of the story right, as Atlantis was a
planet. Some
Atlanteans had escaped before the planet blew up.
As the Sun was the closest to their solar system, the
Atlanteans did end up on earth.
He wondered if the two had managed to make it into one of
the ships for the return trip. But still, that was thousands of
years ago. Yea, pretty
much a one way trip.
For a moment he wondered if they really thought they had done a
magical working to travel in time.
He contemplated the drink in front of him, took a
few licks, and dozed off.
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