Dialogue Essays - The BarIt doesn't take long for lives to join or fall apart. Just a few brief moments in time, subjective, objective, judging or non-judging time. Nobody really cares. It just happens. It doesn't take much. It happens all over the world and no one even notices. Nobody wants to notice. Because everyone has their secrets that they will never tell. She meets him in a bar. He languishes in the dilapidated bar, one of those places where the tired of work retire after putting in eight hours, or ten hours, or twelve, depending on the person, depending on the job. She sips her Bud Light from the bottle because it gives her a sense of sought-after strength, the kind of strength she doesn't possess and can only achieve through illusory enactment. He has no interest in meeting a man, or a woman, or any other breathing entity. She just wants to be left to her own thoughts, thoughts that she is not interested in sharing with herself, much less with another human being. He can't escape the nagging feeling that time is running out and he better do something fast to resolve the situation. "Take me home with you." "Why should I?" if you need it." Conversation overheard. Will she come into play? Suddenly she doesn't want to be alone anymore. The dark night outside is closing in on her, reminding her of all the empty spaces in the universe. Imagine in her head the vastness of the Grand Canyon, only to see it metamorphose in his kitchen. The kitchen with the tile floor the color of dead lemons and peeling in the corners. In the center is the table that wobbles when you lean on it, even if it continues to fill the Queen under your leg of Hearts folded three times. At the table sits her husband of twenty-one years working diligently on the daily crossword. From time to time he throws the ashes of his constant cigarette on the dull lemon floor. He tries to bring his mind back to the red rock canyon. tries to evoke the feeling of vastness, purity and silence of nature doing its work. It's too late. She takes the briefcase and stands up staggering on her black pumps.