I hadn't wanted to go to Applebee's but my friends insisted.

I'm not opposed to going out to have a meal, but I hate going to Applebee's in our town.

It's like a gathering place for every half-drunk chat and happy hour drunk who doesn't have enough money to

drink at the yacht club but too much class for the tilted stool. We weren't big drinkers

I mean we like to tie a few on sometimes, but these guys get

downright sloppy. We get the booth as far from the bars we can, but still so damn noisy in there. By the end of the night, we're all

yelling at each other just to be heard over the jukebox and the drunks. I spend the rest of the night with

my ear drums pounding in my head ready to crack open.

That's how it has always been until tonight.

So we're at the back booth, like always.

And when I saw this guy, Mark was talking about some girl that he was seeing from work,

Frank laughing like a donkey. Laid his drink bouncing around, threatening to spill as he pounded the table.

I looked up for my cowboy burger just in time to see this guy

hunkering over his food at the end of the row. It was bent over his plate at the top of his bald head gleaming and

the light overhead lit him like a wax sculpture.

I'm not usually one for people watching, but the guy stood out, you know, he reminded me of a

story from Temple back when I still want my parents. They told us a story about a guy who had built a creature to get

revenge, you know, a, a golem. And that was my first thought when I saw this fellow.

It sounds like a little harsh but I only mean

that he appeared not like a man but like a approximation of a man he he had on a

white button up a red tie hanging loose around his neck like a noose.

And even from here I could see the sweat starting to pool under his arms, you know, despite the

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