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<\/a> <\/a> Print This Post<\/a>\nIt\u2019s not his stop, but he gets off anyway. Gravity has become a sideways force, and it pulls him forward. He trickles out like a slow leak, spilling into dark and unfamiliar streets. Alone when it shouldn\u2019t matter, but somehow, it does.<\/p>\n
Streetlamps brighten the occasional corner, but only seconds are needed to pass from darkness to darkness again. Then he sees it: a thin blade of light slicing through a tiny window. At first, he thinks someone left it on by mistake, but a closer look reveals it\u2019s not a mistake. It\u2019s a gathering place of sorts. Maybe the only one. Certainly the only one open. And a quiet hope of companionship begins to stir, just from knowing he\u2019s not alone.<\/p>\n
But knowing isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n
To get a feel for the place, he peeks through the tiny window. But what he sees doesn\u2019t ease his isolation\u2014it deepens it. A pitiable mix of patrons line the bar, each one sitting apart from the others. Their mouths move only to accept the next draw, then the next.<\/p>\n
Still, he goes in. Sits with them. Becomes one of them. Aware\u2014but not fully\u2014that he\u2019s been sitting there all along.<\/p>\n
Without conversation, his beer disappears at a startling pace. After a few, he stands to leave. Everyone seems to be somewhere else, and it\u2019s time he went somewhere else too. He settles his tab and heads for the exit but stops before getting there. Music. Rhythms older than his memory, yet somehow familiar. It wasn\u2019t playing when he walked… or was it? He can\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n
He resumes his departure but stops again when a man squeezes his arm at the elbow\u2014an unexpected gesture that lands like a ripple through still water.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t get many strangers,\u201d the man says. \u201cTakes us a while, but we\u2019re glad you came.\u201d He pauses, puts on his glasses. Scans the room, slips them off. \u201cIt always takes us a while,\u201d he says again, but slower this time, which gives the sentence a forlorn slant it didn\u2019t have before. \u201cBut we\u2019re glad you came.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glad I came?<\/em> He mouths the words, a silent test of their shape. Then he looks back at the bar\u2014but something has shifted. The lights seem brighter. Someone nods in his direction; someone else tips his mug. He can hear talking in low tones, almost whispers. He offers a confused smile and makes his way outside, then turns toward the tiny window. He\u2019s not sure which version he\u2019ll see, but stops before finding out.<\/p>\n Maybe it matters. Maybe it doesn\u2019t. He looks for a hotel instead.<\/p>\n The clerk is younger, but not by much. He asks if he knows anything about the bar down the street. He doesn\u2019t name it\u2014doesn\u2019t know the name\u2014but that detail isn\u2019t needed.<\/p>\n \u201cThey called it A Bar In Time<\/em>,\u201d the clerk says with the precision of a seasoned tour guide. \u201cShut down years ago, but you\u2019d never know it. Looks the same. You can still see inside through a tiny window.\u201d<\/p>\n Questions crowd his mind, but he\u2019s not ready for the answers, so he leaves them there. Whoever they are, they\u2019re glad he came. He\u2019s glad too. Not for the beer. Not for the company. Just for the knowing. Turns out, that\u2019s more than enough.<\/p>\n ==========<\/p>\n AUTHOR BIO:<\/p>\n Foster Trecost writes stories that are mostly made up. They tend to follow his attention span: sometimes short, sometimes very short. Recent work appears in Across The Margin, Back Channels, Flash Boulevard<\/em>, and Roi Fain\u00e9ant<\/em>. He lives near New Orleans with his wife and dog.<\/p>\n ==========<\/p>\n WHY WE CHOSE TO PUBLISH \u201cA Bar in Time\u201d:<\/p>\n Author Foster Trecost grabbed us with a strong opening hook incorporating the three elements of any good opening: setting, character, conflict. The setting description is evocative. Even though we don\u2019t know the main character\u2019s name, we don\u2019t need it. He\u2019s sort of an Everyman, and he could be us. The conflict is evident in his desire for a goal that has eluded him previously.<\/p>\n The author sprinkles in a bit magic realism to give it an unexpected twist. Then he caps the story by bringing it around to where it began, adding a nicely resonant touch. The result is a complete and satisfying story in only 552 words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s not his stop, but he gets off anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2103,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"issuem_issue":[347],"issuem_issue_categories":[],"issuem_issue_tags":[349],"class_list":["post-2114","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","issuem_issue-issue-51-october-2025","issuem_issue_tags-foster-trecost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2115,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2114\/revisions\/2115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=2114"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=2114"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=2114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}