Basketball Days Are Over  I'm at the Highland Pub, but it doesn't look like the actual pub. My acquaintances Eve and Julie Nichols are there. A man is coming to meet one of them, and everyone is excited. We are drinking a shot called a Lemondrop. A shot of lemon-ish liquid is put on the table and one has to suck or lick t off the table and then chase it with a lemon-flavored chaser in a glass with a straw. The man arrives and joins us. The biggest problem, I find, is not doing the shot itself, but having enough wind power to suck it all up off the table. My high school friend Nelson Eastman comes up: he is a waiter and is clearing the table. I'm with a man whom I'm friends with from high school; we both know Nelson and ask for free drinks. Nelson says he could probably help us, and asks how much we want to drink. I say as much as possible. When I say this I notice Nelson's boss has walked up behind him! Our attempt to get free drinks may be foiled. Nelson rolls his eyes as he walks away from his boss. We still may get free drinks if his boss didn't catch the gist of the conversation. I get up and walk around. The pub has quickly become crowded. The people I was sitting with have moved or left and others have taken over the table. I see my high school classmates Donald Dilson and Nathan Plumber. I walk around. A woman walks past me from behind and taps her fingers on my back as she does, indicating she doesn't like it when people do that to her: she thinks I walked past her and tapped her on the back a moment before. In fact, I didn't. It must have been a different man clandestinely hitting on her. I see a blondish woman at a table. I think I hear my name, but when I look she doesn't notice me. She looks a bit like my friend Sarah Reed or Helen Vader. I see my high school teammate Shawn Salzburg and his brother Brent, standing together next to a wall. I go talk to them. Both have long, stringy goatees, like mine, but about four to six inches long. Brent's is especially long. My teammate's father Greg Kulik is there with us. He is standing close, facing me. I jokingly pretend to knee him in the groin. After, I think that isn't the kind of personality I want to be displaying. I talk with the Salzburgs about basketball. Shawn says he's playing for the local youth hostel association. Brent's girlfriend yells at him because he's drinking and has a heart murmur: he could die. He says he's not on the drugs anymore, so he can drink. He is close to me, and I get specks of saliva in my face as he talks. I tell Shawn that my basketball playing days are over. While I talk with them I see a short stone bridge. It rises sharply in an arch over the water to be bridged.