The End

Mick @ Bob & Alice's Tavern

"Fuck New Year's Resolutions!  Your life (farfle) is already shit and you're (farfle) not really gonna do shit about it.  So why bother?"  Mick is a realist with a speech impediment*, a man who has seen some rough and tumble times and has accepted the futility of using New Year's Eve as a platform for dramatic (and generally unfulfilled) life changes.  He seemed to consider himself too old to change anyway; he is approaching 64, the same age his father was when he passed away.  He fixated on the Death card and suggested death itself was not what most people feared.  The true fear is leaving behind one's friends and family and missing out on the world.  I ran with that and asked him if the fear of eternity was more prominent in men's heart than the fear of death itself.  "Have you ever been in one of those carnival rooms with all the mirrors," he asked,  "Look at yourself in there (farfle) and tell me what you think?  (farfle) Long and endless forever (farfle) in those mirrors.  The world's gonna end too.  And y'know what's gonna happen?  Giant (farfle) words in the sky!  THE END!"  I can't help but wonder if at the same time he said this, there were dead blackbirds dropping from the sky.   

Mick was intent on pulling the Death card, but instead he got cards signifying relationships and emotions.  "Are you trying to (farfle) put a witch's curse on me?  The (farfle) Pentecostals tried to get me and now you're trying to get me too!  (farfle)"  He didn't like the love cards and insisted on another reading.  He drew three more cards and listened intently until I started talking about dreams and the mysteries of the unconscious.  "You'll be doing real well until you say something that pissed me off," he muttered.  I quickly changed the subject back to death.

*Mick's speech impediment did not sound exactly like "farfle" but was kind of a mix between slurring words, deep breaths, and swishing water.  His impediment never came up in conversation, nor did he seem too sensitive about it, which is why I have included it here for context.