guy at the end of the bar said the refs 'balance out over a season' and the whole place just... stopped. pool balls stopped clicking. i stopped chewing. and the jukebox, bless it, slid straight into a song nobody chose to fill the silence like it was covering for a friend who'd said something unforgivable at dinner. i had a rebuttal. i had four rebuttals. i said none of them. i just let him live there, in that, alone. buckle up but not tonight, tonight i'm just a guy who watched a jukebox do the merciful thing.