La Panarda

“You don’t want a beer,” said the bartender.

One by one, they’d filed in–couples, friends, regulars, all piling up on top of each other, dampening other guests’ clothing with their own (repercussion of the spitting afternoon rain). Some ordered drinks, most didn’t—and for good reason as I’d find out later. The coat racks filled, and the muraled bar went from hush to roar as the anticipation became audible. There was an electricity in the room; an excitement that effortlessly translated from the already educated to the soon-would-be.

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