A loud, obnoxious salesman who is celebrating his first big sale drinks way too much, and then attempts to drive home that night. He is almost run off the road by another driver, right next to a bar called the "Kentucky Rye." He decides to go in and calm his nerves, and finds everyone there is his friend. There is a woman who just stares at him, but he thinks she's attracted to him. The bar owner tells him that the bar is for sale, when the salesman says that it's a great place and must rake in the money. When the bar owner says the price is $1500, the salesman is sure he's kidding but is assured he's deadly serious. The salesman remembers that he has most of his commission left, but still lacks $100. A stranger steps forward and says he'll loan it to him. The salesman takes the money, and the bar is his. The bar owner starts to laugh in a demoniacal way, and everyone disappears, except for the stranger, and the bar is now dark, silent and cobweb-shrouded. The salesman shakes his head to clear it, and remembers that the stranger was the man who almost ran him off the road. He says this to the stranger, but the stranger stops him, and tells him HE is the one who ran the stranger off the road, killing him, because the salesman was driving drunk. The stranger points out the window, where police cars and ambulances are loading up the dead from the accident. The woman who had been staring at him in the bar is out there; the stranger says that it's his wife, who is now a widow. Then the stranger vanishes. The salesman watches as they lift the stranger's lifeless form into the ambulance, and is stunned when he sees his own dead body being loaded up. He hears the devil's laughter again, and realizes he's a ghost, now trapped in his own silent hell within the "Kentucky Rye."

Last revised: Tuesday, September 24, 2002

 
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