Beside her on the cart’s seat sat the old man called ‘Rattlesnake Charles.’ Even if Charles was a stranger to me, I’d have known him anywhere ...ecause of his queer accoutrements: the old man traveled everywhere with a rattlesnake draped across his shoulders. If you asked Charles why he toted a rattlesnake around, he’d tell you that the snake was too big to fit in his pockets. His way of saying, ‘mind your own business.’ An entourage of children always followed Charles whenever he came to town,. We started on the main promenade at about 2pm, by 7pm we must of been to close on 20 bars and were quite drunk . We went into Yates' bar and there was a group of young lads (10 of them) approx. 19- 28 years old on a stag do they were quite lively and dressed as superheroes.They were drinking shots and taking photos. Julie asked them if they wanted a group photo .They stood together and even though Julie was a bit unsteady on her feet she managed to take the pic.They thanked her and asked her to. He introduced himself as Bob. His drink came and he sat down where Ray had been sitting and continued to talk while drinking his drink. I’m not sure how much time had gone by but it seemed like a long time for Ray to use the restroom. As we talked I noticed Ray was sitting at a table across the room. He was watching us and smiling. When he saw me look at him he winked and smiled. I knew what he was up to so I winked back and went back to chatting with Bob. Bob asked me if I would like to dance. ’Well fuck yeah. That’s a given. We already knew that was a goal, didn’t we? But that’s not what I’m talking about.’ John was quiet, reaching for his shaving gear, now avoiding his own eyes in the mirror. ‘Johnny, Johnny, Johnny.’ his inner voice sighed. ‘All right. I won’t say another word about it. For now. You just let me know when you stop denying and want to hear my plan. I’ll be here.’ Scraping off the dark, heavy growth of beard that had accumulated in the past twenty four hours, John.