All but the most dedicated drinkers had long since departed.
Reno sat at a corner table, his glass half empty, his finger drawing idle patterns in moisture rings that mapped the evening. In the background, the 7th Heaven's jukebox played from a time when life's illusion still held room for dreams.
Across the table, Rude's ever-present glasses reflected the low lights preceding last call. Tifa was behind the bar, tiredly washing glasses gathered from where Cloud wandered the far side of the room, wiping down tables.
"Damn, I hate that song…" Reno's eyes were downcast, searching memories in the bottom of his amber liquid. He really didn't expect a response from his trusted listener.
"There was this little place in sector 7…she danced there. Just a pool hall, really…and one of the worst. I coulda probably sneaked in, but I was always too chicken to get closer than watching her through the glass. Damn, she was beautiful…and I was just a kid." Still…"
Rude's patient silence waited for him to continue; Reno when the mask was down was all the more valued for rarity.
"Whenever she was working, I'd hang around 'til they closed…just so she'd walk past me. Then I followed her to make sure she got home okay. She had the sweetest smile…"
Reno abruptly tossed back the last of his drink; the bottom of his glass met the table heavily as the jukebox wound down to a dusty halt. His green eyes, oddly sober despite all he'd put away that evening, unerringly found Cloud among the shadows of stale smoke and remained there; his warrior's form moving in time with the ghost of a music gone long silent.
I remember standing on the corner at midnight
Trying to get my courage up
There was this long lovely dancer in a little club downtown
I loved to watch her do her stuff
Through the long lonely nights she filled my sleep
Her body softly swaying to that smoky beat
Down on mainstreet
In the pool halls, the hustlers and the losers
I used to watch 'em through the glass
Well I'd stand outside at closing time
Just to watch her walk on past
Unlike all the other ladies, she looked so young and sweet
As she made her way alone down that empty street
Down on mainstreet
And sometimes even now, when I'm feeling lonely and beat
I drift back in time and I find my feet
Down on mainstreet
Down on mainstreet
Down on Mainstreet: Bob Seger