“Why do you ask?” he asked with a softly raised brow and a look of confusion, but concern in his eyes.

“I’ve…always had a bad history with water, I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, but…for the past, maybe decade or so, every single night…I just get endless nightmares that all have to do with the same thing…drowning.”

“Drowning, you say? That would be…quite intense nightmares.”

“They are, I feel like I blinked and hours have passed.”

“Nightmares often happen like that. So, my turn for a question…why is it that you accepted Mika’s graveyard shift?”

“I was hoping that having the shift that the brokers were in would…be more tips, but less work because of the fact like you’re the only customer we get between two in the morning and five.”

“I see.”

“I worked the regular shifts when I was in school, but I was just hoping for…a bit more than I usually get.”

“It’s understandable, commendable hustle though.”

“You always tip the best out of everyone.” I said, which made him laugh a little.

“I learned at a very…very young age that you always tip way more than ten percent.”

“Yeah, but you’ll have a bill of like fifteen or something dollars and pay with a fifty for the tip.”

“Are you complaining?”

“No, I’m just…a bit confused, that’s a…massive tip.”

“I always tip well.” He said with a soft smile.

A loud clatter made me look outside to see what looked like a woman walking out of the alley, but I could have sworn her arms stopped at the elbows and when they continued they were feathery wings, that she had bird legs and flew off.

“Did…did you see that?” I asked, but when I looked towards him, he was looking towards me with a brow raised.

“No, I didn’t” he said after a second or two of silence, “What was it you saw?”

“I…Its probably just that I’m tired or something, too much caffeine. I could have sworn I saw a woman who’s arms turned into wings and had bird legs.”

“That would be very, very strange to see, but then again, we are in New York, people are always fucking weird here.”

“Very true.” I said before breathing deeply, “What is it…that you enjoy so much about the sea?”

“I was raised on the ocean.”

“How so?”

“My mother family was…weird to say the least, when she was young, her family and a few of their family friends all sold their houses and bought a giant boat for all of them to sail across the world in. After years of living on the ocean, my mother met my father, he was a sailor on a different ship, barely much time later they were married and Mom returned to Budapest where I was born and I was raised on the ship with everyone till I was about eighteen.”

“Budapest? Hungary?” I asked, he nodded, “But the accent, its British.”

“I learned English from British people throughout my life.”

“Homeschooling on the ship?”

“No, there was a school on a boat that followed behind us…yes, it was all homeschooling.” He said, voice dripping sarcasm at the front making the two of us both laugh. “I just…I spent so much time on the sea I didn’t know what to do without it. Diving down into the surf without needing any equipment because of how long I had spent under the water, seeing all of the bright and colorful fish and animals…it is so peaceful.”

“Peaceful?”

“When you go deeper in the water: you can’t hear anything, but the currents around you and your own thoughts, the way you can just…be entirely alone and at the will and mercy of the sea…its…something I find peace in.”

“What’s the…scariest thing you’ve seen while on a dive?”

“Aside from the various eels, sharks and weird creatures like that?”

“Yeah”

“There was one dive a few years ago…the ship was on a bar, so I thought it was fine, but as I started moving the heavy chests and things out, the ship lurched and suddenly fell off the bar and into a minor trench…I was still inside and because of how the ship sank, it was…difficult to get out of the ship.”

“But you were okay, right?”

“Of course, I was able to get out of the ship and finished up the job after about an hour or two of replanning.”

“But there’s never been like…bodies or something in the ships?”

“Oh, bodies of course…its just…after a bit of doing my work, especially with the fact I handle ship-wrecks, once you see a couple bodies you get used to it.”

“What about the saddest?”

“Now that is a good story.” He said.

Kal and I just kept talking…it was like talking to someone I’ve known for ages. It was easy to just keep talking and talking. We had multiple cups of coffee between the two of us, not caring about the time. It was so easy and I felt so comfortable talking to Kal. He was actually paying attention as well to what I was saying. Despite this being the first actual conversation we’ve had, he was showing that he honestly wanted to know me and remember what I was saying and has genuine concern in his voice when I said something that was anything close to concerning.

“Don’t you like…have a family or something to get back to at home? Working a shift like you do every night must make your wife very, very concerned.” I said motioning to his left hand where a large ring set on his ring finger. He laughed softly.

“Oh, I’m not married…plus if I was, I wouldn’t have a wife, I’d have a husband. This is a memorial ring.” He said motioning to it, the ring was thick gold and adorned with a very large black pearl.

“You’re…gay?”

“I’m gayer than a two dollar bill, Anthony…I’ve known sense I was a kid, but you do have a point, it is…very, very late for me.” he said looking at his pocket-watch against before tucking it back into his vest. As he left, I looked at the tip he put in my hands, he had slipped me two hundred dollar bills, but the receipt was between the bills, set so when I opened the bills, the check opened showing across it in red ink was a phone number and a line of text in weird half-print, half-calligraphy handwriting was: Just in case, Kálmán Varga.