“MACHO NACHOS?” A waiter has arrived at Matthew’s elbow, holding what looks like a tray that must, surely, hold several orders of nachos.     “Oh,” Matthew says. “Yes.”     The waiter smiles and places the entire platter in front of Matthew, on the bar. It is so large that it reaches beyond what, observing the informal boundaries civilization provides us in settings where we are forced to be side by side with our fellow humans, would be Matthew’s space. ...

ONE OF THE handsome lads in the group of students is saying, “My father has this thing about getting the whole family together, right?” He pauses to take a pull at a bottle of Anderson’s Denver Beer, pauses again to savor that Denver cachet, and continues: “Like he thinks we all really want to be together, but circumstances keep us apart?” Pause. “Right.”     This is well received. ...

     Let’s go on. Next on my list is your obsession. ...

A GROUP of students arrives at the bar. Now look at that, Matthew thinks. That’s the sort of thing that makes me think there’s reason for hope. What Matthew finds heartening about them is the fact that they are a racially mixed group of students, quite thoroughly mixed, exhibiting skin tones ranging from his own sandy pink to the rich brown of a good strong cup of coffee, the step from one tone to the next quite a narrow one, so that, if they were to line themselves up properly, they would resemble the flexible plastic scale Matthew holds against his teeth to assess the success of his whitening efforts. ...

IKE’S is a large, hard-edged room, formerly a firehouse, now a restaurant selling a version of fifties prosperity and complacency. The smiling face of the eponymous Ike is everywhere, in black-and-white photos and framed magazine covers on the walls, interspersed with artifacts of the era, ...

FOR SOME TIME NOW, Matthew has had the mistaken idea that margaritas don’t make him drunk. That is why, sitting at the bar at Ike’s, he’s getting drunk on margaritas. He began the evening at the bar at the Alley View, where he had a frozen Bombay and, since it tasted so good, another. Now, sitting here, he’s trying to decide, first, whether or not to review this place, and second, whether or not to continue living. ...

The entire cast and crew of the Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy will be vacationing “in an undisclosed location” from Saturday, July 29, 2023, through Sunday, August 6, 2023. The serialization will resume on Monday, August 7, 2023.

The entire cast and crew of the Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy will be vacationing “in an undisclosed location” from Saturday, July 29, 2023, through Sunday, August 6, 2023. The serialization will resume on Monday, August 7, 2023.

The entire cast and crew of the Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy will be vacationing “in an undisclosed location” from Saturday, July 29, 2023, through Sunday, August 6, 2023. The serialization will resume on Monday, August 7, 2023.

The entire cast and crew of the Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy will be vacationing “in an undisclosed location” from Saturday, July 29, 2023, through Sunday, August 6, 2023. The serialization will resume on Monday, August 7, 2023.