Things have changed

The pub is a little empty considering it’s nearing 8 in the evening. You are a couple of beers down and think of ordering one more. People start strolling in, you don’t know many as all your friends are long gone, to different shores, except for the one you are with. Random programmes on the muted TV screens have no audience. You light up a cigarette not because you like it but more out of a nostalgic sense of recapturing your early pub-going cigarette-smoking days. You are not talking much either but it’s ok. Words are not necessary now. As you sip your beer, and puff at your smoke (you can’t inhale any more and your tongue is already numb from the few that you’ve tried to smoke), when the DJ plays this song from nowhere. It’s in no way related to the rest of the songs they’ve been playing. Taken back, you nearly choke on your beer and can hardly contain your surprise as you raise your glass to the your friend and the DJ.