That bastard son of a priestly affair more than had it coming when he affronted the old mariner. No one witnessing the entire shuffle between the two saw it coming, least of all did the offender. A sailour who stood to the right of the old man, a young American tourist to the left of the other, and I at the far end of the bar were all drawn to observe the situation. We were noticeably affected in doing so by the sheer tense nature of their pantomime and gestures. Anyhow, it was obvious to all of us that the younger brute, a mate from the schooner Alexander, who was commonly aroused by drink, began the confrontation verbally and was the entire fault of it. On several occasions the old man gestured him away but his attitude only became more aggressive and confrontational. This continued for what seemed a lengthy period of offense and defense which gradually appeared to take on a certain gloom heretofore unnoticed. It certainly made the occasion for a drink more interesting to all except the bartender who, by the distraction of his duties in preparation for a busy evening at port, was and remained oblivious to the psychological metamorphosis at mid-bar. The situation very abruptly began to lose any element of tolerance by its onlookers and I, having placed my drink upon the bar, was already in motion to bring it to a halt. I had seen enough.
The next few seconds held us all at bay and with bated breath. In mid-gesture of the brute offender, the gnarly figured old seadog leapt from his stool with singular aim and absolute ambition and wrapped his narrow long fingers about the neck of this aggressive fool who was totally dumbstruck and ill-prepared against the sheer momentum of it. Both fell with a heaving crash upon the floor, thus startling even the bartender into alarm.
The struggle continued horizontally and appeared rather conclusively that of the offender gasping for breath and attempting to rid himself of the mariner’s claustrophobic grip about his neck, yet to no avail.
The old man had very successfully calculated the rhythm of exhalation by the undesired solicitor of his wrath. He had thereupon, in unanticipated momentum, clasped the fool in a death grip from which only an outside support and physical effort could free him. As I momentously regained my advancement in their direction, more due to the lunatic ravings of an unseasoned bartender than my own response to the turn of events, I was to find myself once more surprised.
Many minutes had ensued since the impact was delivered and many a claustrophobic moment hence had yielded the offender no relief in the nature of his struggle. As I arrived to separate the two, I was to witness the younger man slipping rapidly into unconsciousness while the elderly maintained his gruesome grip. Several of us realized that unless the strangulation hold was arrested immediately it would bear fatal results. I thus dedicated myself wholly to the effort. This was the moment of my surprise and a shock to us all. It was only with my truest physical force that I was able to unlock the mariner’s fingers from about the young fool’s neck and in so doing discovered the old man dead.
Claudio Oswald Niedworok©
www.ClaudioArts.com