We had three strikes before noon. Prices were good. People were buying: black coffee and Bloody Mary’s, blowjobs and eggs benny, blow and beer. The geriatrics in the kitchen were too stiff to hunt but they could make a mean breakfast sandwich with double Gloucester and Parma ham. It was twelve o’clock noon on top… Read More Boom (11) (fin)

Did the cops ever show up? No. The mountain was private property, we had our own security. Did they ever show up? Not unless someone called ’em. Not unless there was a fight. And that was the one rule: no fights. You fucked that up, you were gone and weren’t coming back. And nobody wanted… Read More Boom (10)

There were millions of people with terminal adenocarcenoma. Tens of thousands of those could put together tens of thousands of dollars. A whole lot more could borrow it. And most of them didn’t have much time to argue. Prices would drop and rise. I have no idea what people were paying for this stuff: it… Read More Boom (9)

It was the middle of August and it was the busiest the mountain had been outside of a Christmas vacation. We were selling more booze than I’d ever seen and almost all the good stuff. With the boss’s permission I pulled all the cheap beer and doubled the prices on everything. Then I doubled them… Read More Boom (8)

We only had two more hunters come back that day. But the next day, they’d gotten the idea. About two dozen people came in to sell their Gennys. They all came to the bar. This was the Exchange. This was the Bourse. This was Ground fucking Zero and I was the one pouring the drinks.… Read More Boom (7)

On a weekday in late July the bar opened at eleven. I went in and opened at five of eight. Mostly I was too excited. Too curious about would happen next. Too frightened that it was all over before it had started. When nine o’clock had the first suit arrive, I knew that it was… Read More Boom (6)

I took their card. Waited until they’d gone down the mountain, waited a half hour more. Then I asked a busboy to cover for a few minutes and ran over to the little post office before it closed. It was closed. But Alejandro was still in there. I banged on the door and got him… Read More Boom (5)

Nine days later, the first suits arrived. It was early afternoon on a hot July Friday. Plenty of guys, and a few ladies, had come up the night before to wake up on the golf course. The bar was half-full and might even get busier. I thought about calling Katie but decided to muscle through… Read More Boom (4)

About six weeks later I saw it on the news, right there on the bar TV: some professors at Orono had discovered a new plant that might cure cancer. I called Katie and told her to come in and take my shift. I apologized to my four customers, then sped home and sat down in… Read More Boom (3)

It was late afternoon on a Tuesday in June. The bar was empty. The golf course was dead like a Civil War battlefield after the last schoolbus drives away. Lotte was sitting at the bar, keeping me company. She’d started fucking this old rich guy on the side. It made her smile more. I was… Read More Boom (2)