r/AllAuthorsWelcome • u/OrisNull666 • 9h ago
Progress
Nekro drank with his left hand because two fingers on his right had never closed properly after whatever had happened to them. Nobody at the bar knew the story. Somebody had asked once, years ago, and received a look that made a second question feel intrusive.
Politics came on the television above the bottles. The sound was off, which improved everyone involved.
A younger man two stools down watched the captions for a while before asking, “You ever trust any of these people?”
Nekro smiled into his whiskey and rubbed his crooked fingers against the bar.
“I trust history. History had better manners about these things.”
“What things?”
“Who was in charge.”
He lifted his bad hand and counted anyway, forcing each finger down with his thumb.
“Empires were run by emperors. Kingdoms were run by kings. Governments were run by governors. Nobody had to pretend the language wasnt trying to warn you.”
The younger man laughed into his beer.
“And now?”
Nekro looked up at the television. A politician was smiling beneath a flag while the captions promised something nobody in the room expected to receive.
He finished his whiskey, left the empty glass on the wet ring it had made, and reached for his coat.
“Now we have countries....