Free-writing sample (step 2)

The bar was dark and smoky. Cool air whirred from the air-conditioner. All of the customers were men and no one talked except for an occasional request to the barmaid for a drink. An old man played pool. The barmaid had a beehive hairdo, long fingernails and a rouged face. Dark eyelashes rimmed her eyes. A smell wafted through the bar whenever anyone opened one of the bathroom doors. Each door was marked with a sign, "KINGS" and "QUEENS." Other signs dotted the bar, NO BEER SOLD TO MINORS by the cash register. Some had naughty connotations like a nut chasing a screw. That one took me awhile to figure out. Dad sat at the bar and I climbed into a stool next to him. From there I could see everything. I liked the old telephone booth. It had a door and a place to sit. When you close the door, a little light comes on above the telephone. When I entered that phone booth, the world seemed to stand still. I could imagine many things sitting there, staring at the black telephone. Of course I had to leave whenever anyone wanted to use it. The ceiling had many lamps that hung from gold chains. Some reminded me of the merry-go-round at the fair. Lots of bright lights and a few even rotates. The ceiling has so many it reminded me of a checkerboard. The juke box played country music and men over by the window talked. I couldn't hear what they were saying because of the noise of the air conditioner but their hands moved vividly. I liked watching people play pool because of those colored balls. Sometimes those balls strike each other with a loud crack and the colors spin throughout the table. Dad buys me a Pepsi and he orders a Falstaff from the barmaid. Other men sitting at the bar seem to be staring so hard at the paneled wall behind the bar like they're trying to solve some puzzle. Dad doesn't talk either, he seems to be thinking about something in his head. Cigarettes sit in their ashtrys, smoke rising to the ceiling, once in awhile someone lifts one to smoke it.

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