[comprehensive] villain friend

Washington Strange Tales【Ⅸ】

The neon lights in the city have just turned on, and the city is dyed in colorful colors.The colorful signboards are gorgeous—under such changing lights, even though she knew she was walking on the most familiar streets of New York, Dolores had an illusion as if she had been in another world.

She felt as if she had never known this familiar place, any more than she had ever known herself.

The night of this day came very late, and the sky had not yet completely darkened. She stopped between two street lamps, and the dim shadows were intertwined. Dolores turned her head and looked at the road when she saw it. Everything is wrong.

Everything was wrong, and there was nothing but weariness in her heart.

Dolores paused for a while, then walked forward again, turned into an alley not far from her home, and pushed open the door of a bar.

There weren't many people inside, perhaps because the lights had just come on and the doors hadn't really opened yet. The store was quiet like a bar, only the colorful lights flickering in vain.The bartender was wiping the wine glass in front of the bar counter, waiting for the moment of the final display with [-]% patience.

"As usual, whiskey, Tom," said Dolores.

"Don't call me by that name." The bartender said, putting down the glass in his hand at the same time, frowning and watching Dolores slightly: "...just you?"

"Just me."

He nodded slightly, turned around to prepare Dolores' wine: "You haven't come here for a long time."

"Well," said Dolores, "it's been a long trip."

"Sounds really good."

Dolores twitched her lips.

"But you don't look very happy." He turned his head to look at her, "...more unhappy than when I first met you."

"... I just suddenly became suspicious of life," Dolores said.

"You doubt life every day—at least every time you come to me."

Dolores lowered her head and sighed lowly: "...this time is different from before, Tom. I just kept walking on the same road before, but now I seem to turn around inadvertently Come on, realize I've been going the wrong way."

"So, can you turn back?"

"Turn back?" Dolores raised her head, as if she had never realized this, she looked a little confused, "...Can I still turn back?"

"Why not?" The other party looked at Dolores with some doubts, and pushed the wine in front of her.The mellow gold swayed slightly in the wine glass.

Dolores stretched out her fingers and tapped the wine glass lightly, pursing the corners of her mouth unconsciously: "...that would make me appear capricious."

"Who isn't capricious in life?" he said. "You're a human being. For young people, detours are inevitable, and 'constant' isn't necessarily a bad thing in this case." .”

"...I don't know." Dolores said softly, "I always feel that if I am not firm enough, I may fall into the quagmire--" She said that at the beginning, but then suddenly changed Don't you think it's just the opposite', isn't it weird?"

"Isn't it strange to have such thoughts?" Tom looked at her. "Are you living for others? If someone asks you why you thought that way before, but now you have completely changed your mind, then he must have never examined himself. , who can still have the same views and opinions as a child after decades?"

"...You're right, Tom." Dolores swung the glass and took a sip, the spirit flowing between his lips and teeth, extremely spicy, "...this world is really hopeless, isn't it?"

"It's always been like this. To be precise, this world is not desperate, but there are flaws," Tom said. "People who can't tolerate sand in their eyes tend to magnify this infinitely-until they are completely desperate."

"Sounds like a personal problem, not a world problem."

"After all, you can't deny that the vast majority of people in the world can still muddle through, ignore the flaws in life, and live happily in this world."

"I really envy such people."

"What is there to envy? Everyone has their own way of life, your pain may not be their happiness, and your happiness may be their pain." Tom smiled, "Life is short, we can only hope Maximize yourself."

Dolores felt a little dizzy, she let out a "huh" and looked at the other party with a half-smile: "It sounds like you have some insights?"

"If I hadn't realized it, maybe you wouldn't see me here now." Tom said, "Maybe I would stay in school as a scholar, or wander in the mall, but I wouldn't be here as a bartender." Paul — I don't know what that life would be like, but it wouldn't be me anyway."

Dolores was silent.A little bit of light reflected in her eyes, like falling stardust, flickering slightly.

"—What if I feel that what I have done before is wrong, that I feel meaningless, and even want to die?"

"That's your choice too, isn't it?" Tom replied lightly, as if he heard a very normal sentence, "... who can interfere with other people's choices?"

Dolores covered her forehead and smiled softly.

"Every day, there are dejected people sitting in the position you are doing now, completely desperate for this world." He ignored Dolores' laughter, and said softly, "Every day, people tell me about their deaths." I will comfort them on the first day and the second day, hoping to restore their will to survive, but as time goes on, I become more and more tired.”

"It's like a doctor who is used to seeing life and death becomes numb to pain?" Dolores said, she didn't care about the hidden meaning of the other party's words, maybe the other party was laughing at her for just talking, maybe the other party was just a simple statement , but none of this matters.

He was talking and she was listening, that's all.

"Maybe." Tom glanced at Dolores, "...I just came to a conclusion slowly. Many people say that they have completely despaired of this world, but that may not be true. Life is powerless, so we can only use it to relieve the pain in our hearts. Some idealists will infinitely magnify the shortcomings of this world, but deep down in their hearts, do they really have no nostalgia for this world, and have no attachments at all? Hope?"

"..."

--is that so?

Dolores asked herself, did I really not have any hope for this world and just think it was a pure mistake?Or is this just a subconscious conclusion I've drawn, exaggerating the flaws in this world?

"Have you ever asked yourself, did you try to change the world before you completely despaired?" Tom said.

"Change...the world?" Dolores repeated, shaking her head, "but..."

"If you haven't really tried it, don't say 'but' easily." Tom shook his head, "Hope, like despair, requires repeated attempts to know the result. If you haven't experienced anything, then don't Jumping to conclusions easily - do you need a bartender like me to teach you this point?"

"..." Dolores was a little at a loss and at a loss. She looked at the wine glass in her hand and seemed to see a farther place through it, "...Even if you say that, I can't easily rekindle hope. If hope is so easy to obtain, it is not enough to be called "hope". I feel like my spine has been completely broken and I have lost my support. Even though I know intellectually that what you said is extremely reasonable, emotionally There's never been a way to muster up the courage."

"...Well, maybe you need this." Tom bent down, took a rectangular black card from under the table, and placed it on the bar.Slowly pushed it in front of Dolores with his fingers, "When I was most desperate, a person gave me such a business card, and he told me, 'Maybe only when I try to fall into a more desperate situation, will I know the real truth. what is the hope.'”

Dolores twitched the corner of her mouth: "...What is this? Fighting poison with fire?"

"But it is undeniable that this method will always have miraculous effects. Human nature is so ridiculous, isn't it?" Tom said, "What's more, if you think you are already desperate enough, why would you care about the so-called 'more desperate'? "

"..." Dolores glanced at Tom and took the card. It was a small black business card with a phone number [555-019] on it. "So, have you tried it?"

Tom shrugged: "...Forgive me, after I got this business card, I couldn't help but think about it for a long time... I found that maybe the world is not so hopeless. For ordinary people like me, muddling along is not What a problem."

Dolores looked down at the card.

"Honestly, I don't recommend that you really try it," Tom said. "The person who gave me this card made me feel very dangerous. And my instincts are always right, so I thought for a long time, but I didn't type this one." phone because I don't know what's going to happen to me and the unknown is always scary."

"Maybe," Dolores said, "but what is more terrifying than the unknown is complete numbness. At this time, fighting poison with fire may be more miraculous."

"so what?"

"So?" She picked up the wine glass and drank the wine in one gulp. The acrid feeling swept over her taste buds, she felt a burning pain, and tears secreted from the corners of her eyes, "So I plan to try, anyway—— "

"It won't be broken any more."