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# The Comfort Lounge
- URL: https://www.jamesreeves.co/the-comfort-lounge/
- Published: 2022-07-10T19:37:54.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-15T03:48:56.000Z
- Description: It was a run-down joint where time stood still and probably slid backward.
- Author: James A. Reeves

It was a run-down joint where time stood still and probably slid backward. Wood-paneled walls. Cracked leather studded with brass. Deep booths that were once red, now the color of a bruise. It was the kind of place where you might have sealed a business deal in a different decade, but now it was where you came when you had no more business to conduct. Paper lanterns and a plastic palm tree. Tangled Christmas lights on the ceiling and a Rock-Ola jukebox that sang *listen to the rhythm of the falling rain.* A flatscreen above the bar showed a celebrity laughing in a prison yard, and I could not tell if it was a movie or a news report.

A woman mumbled into her drink. “Everything’s a mystery and I’m just a tiny part of it. Maybe that’s all I need to know.” The wall of liquor shimmered like stained glass. The Christmas lights flickered and the TV glitched. Another brownout.

###### *This is the sixth episode of* [*Interstate Scenes*](http://jamesreeves.co/tag/interstate-scenes/?ref=jamesreeves.co)*, a fictional collection of homeless paragraphs, remixed and upcycled bits from the past, and bloopers from the stories I’m writing.*