Cougar Jack

Old Cougar Jack is never far from Latigo Flint's thoughts this time of year. Cougar Jack used to love the holiday season - he'd always claim there was a "quiet, solemn nobility" in drinking alone around Christmas time. (He'd always claim this very loudly, and to anyone and everyone who happened to pass by.)

Cougar Jack told Latigo Flint something one time and Latigo Flint has never forgotten it.
"Young feller," Cougar Jack slurred late one night when it was just him and Latigo Flint at the darkened bar.
"Young feller, in all the world there is but one man who has winked at every beer he's ever drank. It's a quick wink and it's joined by just the tiniest wisp of a smile right before the cap is popped. Now there are a thousand reasons why he might have done it the first time, and a thousand more why he would continue to do it every one thereafter, but only one of them is the real true reason, and when you figure out what it is, you'll understand everything there is to know about this crazy world and all the lovely people who are rambling through it."

Then Cougar Jack softly tapped the bar with his empty bottle and from the shadows down at the end a refrigerator door creaked open and a fresh bottle slid down the length into his waiting hand. Cougar winked at it and his big gray handlebar mustache twitched over a slight smile as popped the cap and took a mighty pull.

Latigo Flint has never figured out the real true reason and it haunts him to this day.