“Any better?” Glottis asked.
“Nope,” Manny said and got up to go to the bar again. He came back with a refilled mug and dropped back in his chair. He looked into the mug for a second or two, then dunked a pretzel into it. He then stared at the damp pretzel as if unsure now what to do with it.
Glottis sighed again and looked at his watch. “About fifteen minutes left,” he said, then took a sip from his pitcher of beer.
“Hurrah,” Manny said sullenly, and decided to change the beer-soaked pretzel for a dry one and eat it.
“What’s eating you, Manny?”
Manny paused in his chewing to think the matter over, then answered, “Pretzel.”
“You—” Glottis stopped to shake his head. “C’mon, Manny. It’s New Year’s Eve! Cheer up, will ya? You’re actin’ like you’ve just lost your best friend.”
“Cheer up?” Manny asked in a demanding tone. He drained his mug. “Just what the… why should I cheer up about… what?” That settled, he pushed back his chair to go get another refill.
“Stay put,” Glottis said, putting one massive hand on Manny’s arm while filling his mug from his pitcher.
“Thanks,” Manny said, and drained the mug again. He was on his feet again and heading for the bar before Glottis could stop him.
He returned unsteadily, refilled mug in one hand and a bottle in the other. Once seated he took a swallow from the mug and then started work on getting the cap off the bottle.
“What’s that?” Glottis asked.
“Dunno,” Manny answered. “There’s a label, but it could say anything. Picked it up when the bartender’s back was turned.” He got the cap off and took a drink. “Bourbon,” he said. “Probably.”
“Too bad,” Glottis said. “Beer goes better with scotch.”
“Fortunately, I’m too tight to care.”
“Yeah,” Glottis said. “So are you gonna tell me why you’re drinking for two or what?”
“The other one.”
“What?”
“Yeah, that’s the reason.”
Glottis frowned.
“I’ll tell you what,” Manny said after a moment. “I’m making up for lost time. Kept holding back this past year. Too busy. Needed to keep a clear head and keep Carla from falling into the sea or something.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And I’ll tell you something else. What the hell was I doing with that club? I should’ve been out looking for Meche, right?”
“But we were looking, Manny.”
“No we weren’t.” Manny took a long drink from the bottle. “We needed to look where Domino found her.”
“OK,” Glottis said gamely, “so where was that?”
“I don’t know!” Manny snapped. “See what I mean?”
“Sure,” Glottis nodded slowly. “I see.”
Manny drained his mug and refilled it from the bottle. “Now, you tell me why we’re on that damn bucket.”
“We’re going after Miss Colomar, remember? She’s on that cruise ship. And when we catch up, we’ll take her to the end of the road.”
“Sure, we will,” Manny said. “To us!” he said, raising the bottle, thought better of it, and switched to the mug. “The three musketeers!”
“There’s only the two of us here, Manny,” Glottis said, “even if you are seeing double.”
“Nah, you’re big enough for two.”
“I resent the understatement,” Glottis said with a grin. He looked at his watch again. “Almost there,” he said. A countdown from ten started somewhere in the bar and Glottis shouted ‘Happy New Year!’ along with the rest. When he looked back at Manny, he saw that he had his head down on the table.
“Hey, Manny,” he said, giving him a nudge. Then a rough shake. Manny just snored. Glottis sighed and drained his pitcher. He went to the bar and paid the tab, including the stolen bottle of bourbon. He returned to the table and gently slung Manny over his shoulder, made his way through the crowd, and out into the cold night air.
Copyright
epub ebook created by Mikkel Rasmussen
Grim Fandango is copyrighted by LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC. Portions of this novelization are original to the author. More than likely the game’s copyright cover those as well, although it’s unlikely anyone would ever care to debate the point.