Sunset was burning a cigarette already as he sat in a booth by the window at the Smile. It was just past six in the morning. Cars hissed by along Pender Street, a woman bundled in blue pushed a shopping cart overflowing with trash along the sidewalk. Sunset was wearing his corner store shades and the tiny porcelain coffee cup trembled in his hands as he lifted it to his lips for a tentative sip. “What’s up, charmer?” I said easing into the booth across from Sunset and motioning to the woman we called The Triple Dub for a cup of coffee and a menu. “Hanging like a bag of snakes, yo,” he said sipping his coffee. I could see the makings of a shiner behind his shades. “What the fuck happened to you last night after we left the Starfish?” He put his coffee down, his neglected cigarette was burning a long ash. “Not exactly sure,” he replied. I woke up in my bed cuddling a bottle of Jim Beam and wearing nothing more than a pair of oversized bowling shoes. The pale green ones with the cream coloured toes.” He’d stolen some shoes from Johnny 5’s the alley up on Commercial which probably meant he’d hooked up with D and gotten himself in trouble. “Tell me about the shiner,” I said as The Trippe Dub dropped off my coffee and a menu. “Thank you,” I said to her, as she turned and went back to her own burning cigarette and a copy of The Province. Sunset leaned back and let out a weary and bemused laugh. | image @dvlmn6