12.

Peg leaned on her elbow, at the bar, waiting for her drink order. The band had started their third and last set. Rhin was singing a slow love ballad with only Kelly and his guitar behind her. The other players were unlit and sipping drinks. Several couples were slow dancing in front of the stage.
Sam leaned against a post between the dance floor and dining room.
He was fully intent on Rhin while she sang. Peg thought it a bit obvious, the prowl in his look. Rhin herself looked at Sam a few times, but not to linger. She was singing out, not to one single man, not to Sam. Towards the end of the song, Kelly sang harmony with Rhin, face to face. Peg wondered if their loving looks were only show.
"Hello..." It was John, the bartender. "Yo Peg." He had her drinks.
"Hmm... yes." She was staring at the stage.
"He is a looker." He was speaking of Kelly.
"Dreamboat," she agreed.
"They're quite a pair."
"Are they?" She looked back at John. "Do you think they're involved?"
"I don't know. I see Kelly scamming everything that moves. They're probably fall backs for each other. When they can't get anyone else."
"That's terrible," she said. She picked up her tray and threaded her way through several layers of people crowding in at the bar. Her path led her past Sam.
"Hey roomie," she said.
"Hey Peg."
"You look cheery. I know that look."
"Great grass," he whispered. "Come out to my alleyway."
"Wait, let me unload these." She looked across the room at her table. She looked back quickly and down at the floor. "Shit."
"What?"
"Alec."
Sam started to look, but Peg stopped his chin with her finger. She pretended to be wiping some bit of lint for him.
"Go out first," she said. "I'll meet you at the gate in a few minutes."
"Why? Because of him?"
"No, not at all. I'm sure half the place saw you come back with Rhin. Let's not be too obvious. I may keep my job." She walked around him with her tray toward a table.
Sam made his way to the street, smiling wryly as he passed Alec. Outside in the parking lot, the sound of the band was replaced by pounding rhythmic rap music from a passing car. A black man with bright white pants, no shirt, and dreadlocks walked at Sam. The man whispered, "Smoke... blow... blotter..." Sam walked past him.
Nearing the gate, Sam heard, "Tin poutana. Tin poutana." A bald man with a great deal of body hair was throwing his arms back in anger, yelling loudly. "Tha tin skiso tin poutana."
Sam walked up to him. "Rough night?"
The man looked at Sam. With a heavy Greek accent he said, "This bitch, this woman, ungrateful woman whore." He pointed through the gate at a woman walking away. "She must to have her free choices.
The drunk bitch whore with my money, to go to see her young American to fuck." He looked up at the sky.
"Tha tin kseskiso," he muttered.
"Ah forget it," said Sam. "You want to smoke some pot?"
"No pot. I do not smoke."
"I'll buy you a drink, then. What's your name?"
"I am called Tassos. I do not drink."
"You don't drink. Why not? Religion?"
"No religion. I too much drink."
"Huh." Sam took out his cigarettes and lit one. "You from Greece?"
"Yes, before. I live here now."
"You live on Saint Thomas and you don't drink."
"I drink juice and water."
"How about coffee?"
"No coffee."
"Why not coffee?"
"I must to have clear mind to paint."
"What do you paint?"
"I paint pictures. Big crazy pictures."
Sam looked at the Greenhouse for Peg. "I write stories and stuff. Small ones. Not very crazy."
"Crazy is very hard. You must to keep clear."
"Huh. I would think better things, for crazy, would come from being a bit wild, instead of boring."
"Not boring. I paint crazy and my mind is quiet. It is still."
"Yeah, but you've got to get lost to grow, you know."
"I do not understand."
Sam looked again for Peg. "You have to get lost..." He put one hand over his eyes and gestured with the other like a blind man. "...before you learn anything new."
"This may be true. I was lost for many many years and I learn I think. But not now so much. I paint and find things. It is better."
"Well, whatever floats your boat. Come on, I'll buy you an orange juice. There's lots of pretty women in there." He pointed to the Greenhouse. "Yonder."
"Yes. I know this," said Tassos. "But I know a better place."