Reinventing Mike Lake by R.W. Jones Page A

America.  When the battleship Maine was sunk in April 1898, provoking the Spanish-American War, it was through this building that the rest of America heard the news.  The sinking of Maine has been determined to be an accident when guns on board detonated, and not an actual act of war.
                  A decade later, the building became a cigar factory, housing thousands of Cuban cigars – back then they were easy to get; now, not so much.  After a short stint as a cigar factory, it became a very popular place for the young men in the Navy who were traveling around the world – a bar that moonlighted as a bordello.
                  During prohibition, the building hardly missed a step, becoming the most popular speak-easy in the area.  Hess said it hardly ever met any legal issues from local law enforcement – because, he added with an easy chuckle, “they were some of the biggest customers.”
                  “That brings us to just about Hemingway’s day.  He lived in Key West on and off for about a decade, but around the time he left for the last time the owners took advantage of a cheaper rent around the corner, and moved there.  This place went through a few names as a bar and finally was sold to Tony, and here we are.”
                  Being as drunk as I was, it took a few trips to the bar before I finally got down the whole history.  For my first visit, and a few after that, I couldn’t get past the ghost stories.  Luckily Hess was a patient man.
                  Hess told me that this was a popular place on the Key West ghost tour, and that of all the other places on the tour, this was the one that held the most allure because more people believe they felt the presence of another being here more than anywhere else.
                  Because of mixing drinking with ghost stories, I found myself thinking about my wife more than I had since I started the trip.  I instantly hit a point of sorrow so strong that I was aware of Hess still talking, but she was all I could think of. While sitting on the Cronkite stool, I remembered when she died  I would find myself pleading almost every night that she would give me a sign that everything would be okay, perhaps even in the form of a ghost.  I just wanted to see any sign at all that what had happened made sense in any way at all.
                  Hess obviously didn’t mean to offend me.  In fact, at this point in our relationship he had no idea that I had ever been married, let alone a widower.  Hess continued to try to make some more light talk that day, but after a while I told Hess I had to leave.  He had no reason to ask me if something was wrong having just met me, but he did anyway.  Later I would be thankful he cared about a stranger’s sudden change of attitude, but that day I just said I had to go get my dog. 
                  With a day that had started so excitingly, I was surprised even in my drunken state how quickly it had turned.  Luckily, by the time I got back to Frank and Jean’s house, the alcohol had made me very sleepy so I got some relief from myself when I passed out almost as soon as I walked back in the room.  Jean must have taken Bahama out because she didn’t act like she had to go when I got back to the room, but she always seemed to know when I was thinking about my wife and usually gave me distance.  I fell asleep thinking about my wife and my dreams were filled with nightmares of her in her wedding dress walking around Captain Tony’s, always just out of my reach.
     

13
                  I remember my first love.  Puppy love.  Teenage love.  It was my freshman year of high school, and I was so enamored with the idea that a girl could like me.  Because it was the first time a girl had admittedly liked me, it came along with a large amount of jealousy I still am not proud about to this day.  A perfect mix of