The Seaside Bar and Grill

SYNOPSIS

The Seaside Bar and Grill

In the backroom of the Seaside Bar and Grill, a group of people is playing a game of Texas Hold-em. Samuel Cocker, known around these parts as “Skinny” is a black one-legged Viet Nam war hero and the narrator of this story. Most of the people at the poker game have one thing in common; over a span of four decades, each has saved Skinny’s life. He refers to them as members of his second family.

The first member “Peter Hamilton” is also known as “Crazy Pete.” Even though the next scene shows Skinny saving Pete’s life we learn that Pete kept Skinny alive on more than one occasion while serving in Nam back in 68. Pete built the Seaside Bar and Grill along with “Pete’s Surf Shack” and “The Oceanside Motel” near the fictional desert town of El Paco Arizona back around 1979. He had an epiphany after reading the “Last Days of the Late Great State of California,” by Curt Gentry. Gentry’s premise is one day an earthquake will occur out in the Pacific and create a massive tidal wave that will engulf the entire west coast. Pete spent ten years at the University of Berkeley trying to obtain a four-year degree in Business which was a stipulation in a Trust fund set up by his Grandfather. Pete is a major pot-head. Skinny who has his own small bar and grill in LA moves to El Paco in 89 and buys the Seaside from Pete.

As the poker game continues Skinny reveals the other members of his second family which include Jimmy Jacks aka Johnny Brassi aka Johnny two guns an ex-gangster out of New York City. The rest of the members are William “Buster” Madison an ex-big time ad agent who works for Jimmy writing ads, and Fat Betty the manager of the Seaside Bar and Grill.

Jimmy is part owner of KRAB Radio 105.9 and ended up in El Paco around 98. He saved Skinny’s life one night after a Fat Betty birthday party which was an annual event at the Seaside. He gunned down two Georgia boys who were about to send Skinny to the hereafter. Skinny calls Crazy Pete who brings along his employees Jose and Juanita to clean up the mess. After the Georgia boy incident, Jimmy tells Skinny and Buster some of his past, which included a shoot-out with some Russians, an encounter with FBI Agent ARNOLD D. SWEENEY and a false story that he is in witness protection.

William Madison known to everyone in El Paco as Buster showed up around the year 2000. Buster has the habit of comparing events that have happened in his life to something he’s seen in a movie, on TV or read in a book. A seemly harmless guy until he shows Jimmy that’s not necessarily the correct presumption when they get into a scrape on a working trip to Phoenix. He was instrumental in saving Skinny’s life after a fire breaks out at Pete’s Surf Shack.

Fat Betty is the manager of the Seaside. She has a history with Skinny, worked for him in LA and ended up in El Paco after Skinny’s wife Loretta becomes ill. She is a very pleasant person unless you get on her wrong side. She saved Skinny’s life at the big shoot-out near the end of the story.

Three days before the fire agent Sweeney shows up with the intent of blackmailing Jimmy Jackson. This forces Jimmy to tell his friends the complete story of his past, including an armored car heist. They go to Pete for help, secrets are revealed. It’s not an accident that most of the main characters in up in El Paco.

When the fire breaks out at the Surf Shack, the event was filmed by a TV station out of Phoenix which catches Jimmy Jackson on camera. Because of its unusual circumstance, the fire was shown on national TV. Jimmy’s location is revealed, and the gangsters descend upon El Paco.