Very hidden, near the bar area of a city that I will not name, you can find a corridor that will take you to the Ghost apple bar.
I work in that place, although to say that “work” is too much, I usually spend ages sitting listening to the radio waiting for clients.
It’s boring, I’d tell you old stories from work but I still have to put you in the context of the place and I hate thinking about the past.
I will tell you my daily routine.
Arrive at 9:40, walk in the back door, walk through the kitchen, say hi to Rocco, leave my jacket, phone, and wallet in my locker, and set up the counter.
In 20 minutes I’m ready to serve customers… If we had customers.
every night we only have about 8 or 12 clients throughout the night, I’m not complaining, with or without clients I get paid, and it’s more than they would expect.
I got this job by sheer luck, I lost my previous job due to personal problems and a little argument with a client, but I’m not going to bore you with a trivial story like that.
While I was sitting on a bench looking at the clouds thinking about which organ would give me enough money to pay my rent and my monthly expenses, a man approached me and asked me if I knew of any bartenders who are looking for a job, I told him that I just got fired from a bar, he talked to me, I explained my situation, and he told me that he had a job.
I just needed to go to a doctor to do some tests, he gave me his card, the doctor’s address and said goodbye.
The next day I was already with the doctor first thing in the morning, his medical tests were very exhaustive and strange, but what do I think, I left the university and I’m just a failure, this man studied for many years and was left with a large student debt alone to cater to idiots like me.
Well, after hours of testing, and many blood, urine, saliva, vision tests, and many questions about myself, the doctor said he would send my results to the man who offered me the job.
I left the clinic and walked home, I had nothing to do so eating leftover Chinese food from yesterday and sleeping would be my plan for this day, but I couldn’t walk even 100 meters when my phone rang.
When answering it was the man from the bar
-hey! Boy! They have already sent me your medical results, everything seems to be in order, come today, I will explain everything to you.
And that’s how I got here, that was about 5 years ago, from now on my life took another direction, but that doesn’t matter, the direction I had before was… It wasn’t the best, let’s leave it that way.
I’ve already talked a lot about myself, so let me tell you an anecdote from work, one more uncomfortable than terrifying.
Working in such a hidden place late at night, it’s normal to see people a bit… Strange, my work only has access to the public through a corridor, but on the right and left we have a T-shaped staircase, I have never gone up to these but I am sure that they overlook the departments of the place.
Not many people walk through these but the few people who come down from these are… Interesting characters.
Sometimes they are not even people, and that is what I will talk about today, the “cat” that visits us every night.
while i’m going about my business i hear a meow, i never notice when it comes, it’s here 2-3 times a week without fail, it sits near the fountain and stares at the door of the bar for like an hour.
Which bothers me, I would say too much, the wretch is too ugly not to notice his presence.
He stares at me, a penetrating gaze, and his presence is… singular.
I don’t know how to explain it properly, we could say that its presence feels like a mixture of discomfort, a sensation of heat, humidity in the air and the smell of a wet cat with hints of rotten fish and eggs stuffed with pennies.
The windows of the place do not have curtains or anything to cover them, so I am forced to see him every night that he comes.
One night I walked out the front door, my plan was to go up to the cat and scare it away so it would never bother me again.
I slowly approach the cat, making sure my footsteps and movements don’t alert him to my plan.
His look felt heavy, I’m talking about a real weight, I felt like my legs were losing strength as I got closer to the cat.
this he attributed to my surprise at seeing the cat up close.
The wretch did stink, but that was the least important thing, being closer I could see what he looked like.
His body full of wounds, he was missing an eye, his hair was as white as the moon, his tail, although strangely long, moved without the slightest effort, but above all there was one detail besides his ugly face that caught my attention. , its size.
I’ve seen cats of all shapes and sizes, but this one takes the prize for the biggest cat I’ve ever seen, easily measuring 2 meters from head to tail.
When I stopped being lost in my thoughts I walked in his direction again, the pressure was increasing, I felt my heart beating faster and faster, he’s just an ugly cat, I don’t know why I was so terrified of his presence.
Step by step I panicked more, I don’t know how I managed it, but I got there, I was in front of him, he was sitting, his head reached my stomach.
You know that feeling of superiority when standing in front of someone or something smaller than you?
Because I didn’t feel that, actually, I felt like a mouse in front of that cat, I felt that the wretch would jump on top of me at any moment and eat me in one bite.
“g-get out” I said with a weak and cowardly voice, I know it sounds pathetic but I insist that that cat had something that terrified me.
He stood up, stared at me, and growled, at that moment all my alarms went off, my whole body moved without me noticing and by the time the world stopped turning I realized I was in the bar.
I looked behind me and the cat was still there, he took his usual seat and stayed there for another 20 minutes before disappearing.
I also stayed those last 20 minutes lying on the ground in a fetal position, all the fear that invaded my body vanished in a second, I looked up and as many guessed, yes, the cat was no longer there.
Since then I never go out when he is outside, like everyone else, there is something in which he yells at me “if you go out I’ll kill you”, although the story I told you was a long time ago.
I call him Moon, he comes and always sits in the same place, some nights I leave a bowl of water and cat food for him outside the bar before he arrives.
since then he leaves the empty plate and walks to the fountain to start his routine.
Since I fed him I don’t feel so afraid of him anymore, but still, every time I see him out there, I feel something alarming, I feel as if something was telling me from the depths of my mind “DON’T YOU DARE TO COME OUT”.
His arrival symbolizes something, something important.
It symbolizes that we won’t have customers for a while, so this cup of cheap coffee is in your honor Moon, another night together at Ghost apple bar.
Tonight’s specialty is:
Order of grilled sardines and shrimp