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== Synopsis ==
The bar-fly, the player's point-of-view character, sits at a central table in on a stage dressed up as a bar called [[The Lower Depths]]. From there, the player can glance forward at the action of the performance of ''A Reckoning''; above at the Hard Times sign for scene notes; at the jukebox for sound cue notes; at the stage director for production notes; at the audience for reviews of the performance; and at their own table to see their own stage directions from ''A Bar-fly''. The scene only moves forward after the action in-front is completed. The audience reviews suggest that the present-day action is actually a student production of ''The Entertainment'' from the 1970s.
In ''A Reckoning'', bartender [[Harry Esperanza]] and patron [[Evelyn Hickman]] discuss the heatwave outside, comparing it to the heat in Texas, a location Evelyn has not been to but whose husband Ted is currently at on a business trip. Evelyn fears that Ted may cheat on her but Harry discourages the thought. She orders a beer but Harry points out that the only drink he carries now is whiskey from [[Hard Times Distillery]]. Evelyn asks if Harry's seen the people who work for Hard Times, remarking that they are "strange"; Harry only says that they work hard. Their conversation turns to improvements for the bar that Harry thought of while on recent vacation, then to the currently drunk bar-fly, and then back to Ted before a reflection on living in the moment and enjoying drinks, camaraderie and the upcoming bar entertainment, [[Junebug]], whom is expected to arrive by 8PM.
In the fourth and final scene, Pearl is back in the bar, soberly chatting with a drunken Evelyn and her inebriated parents. Pearl lets her parents know that she is cutting them off financially. Lawrence gets upset, calling Pearl cruel to cut them off when her mother has received a promotion, but Rosa clarifies that she was only ''considered'' by her boss as management material, stating his words that she will "maybe eventually" get the promotion. The sobering moment is interrupted by Evelyn's desire for more alcohol and her once more teasing Harry about his poolside vacation. Harry explodes into rage, saying that he simply closed the bar for a week and never left the city because he has no money at all to afford a vacation. He explains that he couldn't even afford the whiskey from Hard Times without striking up a deal with the distillery. When Pearl presses for clarification on that deal, Harry suggests Pearl leave the bar, as she doesn't deserve what is coming next. She leaves.
Evelyn dreams she was in Ted's place, perhaps taking a young man's offer of love just as she imagines Ted is cheating on her right now. Rosa and Lawrence cling to the hopefulness of Rosa's boss' proclamation of "management material" as they await the arrival of Junebug. Harry dismisses everyone's ability to pay up their debts, saying "they feed on debt" and that "they put it in the whiskey." Asked for clarification by Evelyn, Harry reveals that he has sold the debt he is owed by the bar patrons to the Hard Times distillery, and that someone from there will be at The Lower Depths soon to collect it from all of them. As he apologizes over and over, a glowing skeleton appears behind the bar-fly, in front of the audience. Cut to black.
== Development & background ==
