Bahrain Blues

For an enhanced experience, listen to this piece while reading the post below.

Sometimes it feels that things have changed when they really haven't. It’s still the same smokey foreground down at the shore; you were just away from its pungent, sewage-ridden aroma for a good while. On the other side of the island, the faithful continued to wail over a long-lost martyr, but you stopped believing in the old legends. Meanwhile, reality lay in the form of trafficked sex workers loitering the length of Exhibitions Avenue and its many shady motels, and they have only become younger and pricier, peddling pennies from patrons boasting hefty amounts of disposable income; the would-be johns usually hail from Saudi Arabia, where deprivation is rampant and money flows incessantly.

To Dishdasha, the only half-decent spots in that stretch of road were the National Bookshop, where she spent a good deal of her younger years perusing a multitude of titles—many of which were prohibited in her home nation—and the Kudu breakfast joint where she enjoyed pancakes and scrambled eggs without having to endure the sight of a thick wall segregating her from single-male citizens. Alas, that branch ceased to exist in recent years, and along with it, the memories.

That evening, she puffed clouds of smoke outside of the Hard Rock Cafe, a once-popular bastion of booze-hounding and New-Year’s-Eve parties. The customer base waned substantially, and was now limited to the few souls making the pilgrimage to nurse a drink and reminisce about better days; an ode to a dying franchise. Dishdasha was due back inside, though she preferred it out there in the street. The cocktail of particularly familiar aromas and sounds transported her to another dimension. Too goddamn cold to stay out here any longer, anyway.

Noir thingy

A clear, moon-lit sky draped the bustling metropolis. It seemed God had planned to give His creations an open window to the gleaming stars along with a cool breeze to alleviate the swelter of a typical July evening. The grand spatial luster shone over the passerby going about their normal business. 

Ol’ Charlie, an infamous local hobo, continued to pleasure himself furiously within the confines of his favorite tarnished alleyway, and a couple of blocks away Lance Barrister was on the verge of reliving the intimate moment his face had once shared with the cold concrete ground outside of O’Connor’s Alehouse.

“Ya best not come back here until you’re willing to pay your overdue tab, or else this’ll be a stern talkin’ to compared to what I’ll do to ya next time ‘round,” the proud pub-owner proclaimed after he “escorted” the lowly gumshoe from the premises. “And Jaysus you had the balls to show up here plastered and penniless.”

“Come on, Gerry,” Barrister slurred as he struggled to get back up. “You know I’m good for it.”

“You’re a good-for-nothing loser gobshite,” O’Connor retorted. “What makes it sadder is you could actually be good for it had you put the effort. Clean up your act, will ya. In the meantime, stay away from my bar.”

The hulking Irishman walked back inside to serve his paying customers. He had a soft spot for Barrister and wished him all the best, but at that moment he felt a little tough love was in order.