The Rendezvous
an excerpt

Fifteen minutes after the bell had rung, he was at the door. It was a long wait, she thought, but left the thought behind like a wrapper on the ground whose origins were unsure. Obviously the wrapper had belonged to some precious or semi-precious object at some time, thought the origins remained unclear. The wrapper could’ve encoded some message, sent some lessons to the point for the remainder of its existence, but it was quickly swept into the storm drain by the passing street cleaner and left forgotten. When she looked back up at him, the strange image of the wrapper seemed to linger like a halo around his form and she was sure she’d seen some sort of attachment between him and the wrapper. She let it go. He stepped out of the door and onto the front porch and was with her before she knew it. Though the fifteen minutes was little more than a lingering memory, she was sure she’d felt some tinge of anger sweep over her. Perhaps it had been swept away by the cleaner as well.

later - - -

The Lighthouse in the Sky is no place for cheap beer. In fact, the proprietor will not allow any pint to be poured less than seventeen ounces and will not serve anything clear enough to resemble urine. It was under the auspice of Charity that Corruption came walking in the door peddling its wares to the snuffers pulled up at the taps. It’s easiest to start at the taps. You’ve got them alone, or headed for the floor and they often like to watch. Get the followers together and suddenly you become the leader.
Unbeknownst to Corruption, Charity frequented this establishment and she was pissed. She didn’t take mocking contribution well and patronization was a pet peeve. Topping her scale was forgery for the sake of self-perpetuation. When she cam at Corruption, her fists well full of the swagger associated with the roughest of the lot in this or any place that serves cold beverages to sink you cares into; most often to outright drown them in the shit. The blow she dealt Corruption caught it by surprise and by the time she was finished, Corruption slumped out the door with a bloody nose, a bruised ego and a battered sense of entitlement. It would be quite some time before that sore beast would get back to eating chumps for breakfast.