I'm working in a bar to make extra money to support my wife's gambling habit. It's a small smoky Jazz bar at the North Gate; a basement bar, down a dark flight of stairs off of the main street.

I'm wiping down the bar– a group of students having just departed leaving it covered in salt and spilled beer. We don't sell anything salted, the students must have brought it in.

A man comes down the stairs into the bar– a foreigner in hard black shoes and an overcoat an with a high collar.

He approaches the bar, and I ask, "What can I get you?"

"Just a beer, thanks." he says, then goes and sits at a table. The bar is empty, but he sits at a round table at the center of room. I am about to ask what kind of beer he would like, when he adds, "Anything dark."

"Sure." I say, and start drawing a local brewed stout.

He looks at me from the table. "Hey, aren't you Mark Siggers?" he asks.

"Yep." I answer.

He gets up again and walks back to the bar.

"Well," he continues, and then after a too long pause, goes on again, "Do you recognise me?"

"Sure I do." I say, looking up from the pull. I put the beer down, letting the the foam flatten for a second. Pausing like he has.

"Well how have– "

I cut him off, as I was just pausing, and it was not yet his turn to talk: "You're the guy that came in here and asked me if I'm Mark Siggers."

Now it is his turn.

"Yeah," he says, another odd length pause, "But do you remember me from before that?"

"Of course." I say, putting the beer on the bar for him. If he insists on weird pauses, I can match them.

"From– "

"You walked in that door over there."

"I was in one of your classes." he explains, but the explanation doesn't feel done. I wait, knowing that he is not finished the thought. "Combinatorics. About 10 years ago."

"Were you the guy that left the salt on the bar?" I ask gesturing to the bar in front of me.

"No." He says. Pausing. "I just got here."

"I heard you've been here for more than 10 years."

"What?" he pauses. "Who said that?"

"Some weird guy who pauses a lot." I wait for a second. "Next time I see him around here, I'm going to fail him."