Rio De Janeiro, 1973
As if on cue, a loud discussion broke out among the guys playing cards at the table off to the back as one guy with an enormous gut protruding from a frayed open shirt produced an enormous butcher knife and began waving it around drunkenly.
The two armed guys who’d been standing talking easily said something derisive and walked out into the street waving their arms in disgust as if the whole scene was beneath their dignity. I figured that was as good a time as any to take my leave too and stood up, paying the poker-faced barman who gave me a quick mechanical thumbs up with out taking his hooded eyes off the ensuing confusion at the back as though he’d seen it all before.
So had I, I thought ironically now as I walked out into the dirty night.
Copyright Jonathan Shaw 2009.