Pietrofalls

Chapter 2

Jordana

Full moon night in July

It was coming up on 1:30am and Jordana, Ivy and Domingo were the only people left in the tavern. Anita and Allenby were the first ones in the group to call it an early night. They were gone before it was even dark. Liam hung out for a while, but as soon as it started to get dark, he left as well.

The women who were playing chess left a little after Anita and Allenby. Mattias was at the tavern for a while and even played his guitar for about two songs. No one really paid attention to him but it was a nice background sound. He had a friendly conversation with Allenby before she left, but he seemed disappointed by the end of it. Mattias left when the clock hit 1am.

Some people came in and out of the tavern all night. All of them looked at Jordana but no one approached her. It seemed they might have avoided her due to Liam being with her. It didn't bother her since she was enjoying the company. Once Liam left, Jordana saw how much the place had slowed down.

Jordana looked at her watch. "It's 1:30 already." She slurred. "Time really did go by fast."

"Time can do that when you're in good company," said Ivy.

"And that you definitely are," said Jordana as she raised her glass to Ivy. She began to drink the glass of beer as Ivy pulled the glass away from her mouth. "Hey," said Jordana as she tried to reach for it. "What are you doing?"

"Time to change your drink," said Ivy as she put the glass in the sink and grabbed another. She poured water in the glass and gave it to Jordana. "Here you go. Drink that. Trust me, you'll thank me in the morning when your hangover isn't as bad as it should be." Ivy grabbed her own glass of water and down it.

"Sounds like you're speaking from experience," said Jordana.

"I definitely am," said Ivy as she poured herself another glass of water.

Jordana leaned her elbows on the bar and her head on her hands as she stared at Ivy. "Do you really know everything about the people of this town?"

Ivy laughed. "I know more than what people would like me to know. It's funny how much they like to share when they've gotten a little liquid courage."

"Oh I believe it. Is there something interesting you can tell me about some of the people in town?"

"I can, but I'm not sure I should." The two women giggled.

"Come on," pleaded Jordana. "Tell me something light, at least."

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure," said Jordana as she leaned back and thought about it. "Does everyone get along with each other or are there some sort of family rivals? I feel like that's always something with little towns like this. Family rivalries."

Ivy laughed. "Yeah, we have some of those, but I'll tell you something you might find more interesting."

"Oh yeah. What's that?"

"So like every town in Mass, it's an old town with old families. Like families who've been here right off the boats from the old world."

"Old world?"

"Europe."

"Of course."

"So the three oldest families here came from three different countries in Europe. Italy, Portugal and Spain."

"No Britain?" asked Jordana.

"From my understanding, those families didn't last long when they got into bad terms with these three families."