Occupational Hazard

Dream: "Hey, are you alright?"
I lift my head up from a cold wooden surface, open my eyes and take in my surroundings.  A man whose jacket is way too large for his slender body is staring me in the face.  Eyes intense and concerned, he waves his hand in front of my face making sure I blink a bit.  Just above him I see tiny liquor bottles jostle with the room I am in.  I look out the window and see foliage and brush whizz by the thick shivering panes of glass.  I look back to my left past the concerned man sitting next to me and I see well dressed man with a white rag cleaning saliva off the counter-top.  He looks up at me and asks,
"Would you like another one?"  I look down at my left hand and find a stout empty glass with elegantly rounded ice-cubes looking for a swim.
"What am I having?"
"Sidecar."
I take in my surroundings one more time,
"Seems quite appropriate, yes please good sir." I reach into my jacket for my wallet but I am halted by an arm from next to me.
"I've got this round fella."  I look back to the man in the big jacket,
"Well thank you Mr..."
"Call me Jaimie." I retrieve my arm to reclaim the glass that I had temporarily surrendered.
"Well thank you Jaimie, can I get you anything?"
"No thanks, very thoughtful but I'm working this evening."  He looked down at the counter and smiled. I took the first voluptuous sip from my fresh glass and I noticed Jaimie's head was incredibly clean shaven.  Besides having an innate tan, he was bald to the point of reflecting light with his noggin, and a chin that could open a mighty can of beans if it needed.  No trace of a five, six, or even a seven o'clock shadow.  He notices me looking him up and down so I decide to stare back into the abyss of my drink.

I allowed my fingers to skate around the rim of my glass as I let the familiar warm feeling ooze through my body.  The laughter of children erupted from just beyond the room.  I swiveled my head and glared at the door.  Jaimie happened to notice my "subtle" body language,
"Not a fan of kids?" I swivel back to face the bartender.
"Can't stand 'em."
"What do you do for a living?"
"English teacher," I finish my drink.

We soon came to a stop, I got up from the stool, stuffed some bills in the jar on the counter, and nodded the bartender farewell.
"You teach little kids English?!" I glance over at Jaimie and see his eyes have returned to their intense and concerned state.
"Well they're kids with dorm rooms, debt, and beer money if that makes any sense."  Jaimie gets up and follows me out of the car.
"So you work at the college here in town?"
"Well I've been hired to start a new course."
"Oh well good luck! I'd chat more but I must use the lavatory."
"It's just as well, I'm heading to the nearest pub."  I turn to wave farewell to Jaimie.
"Don't stay out too late now..." I chuckle and thank him for his words of wisdom and the drink.  I make my way for the exit as he ducks into the last lavatory.

I saunter off the train and find myself on a series of diverting cobblestone roads, most of them heading up a hill.  I follow the only one with a street sign.  With a hopeful heart and an empty drinking hand I wondered around the dark bends of the road I had chosen.  My legs eventually found my butt a stool at a raucous college bar.  My hand was soon fulfilled with a glass with some brown liquid inside it.  It was hard to savor the warm liquid with the layers of sound this bar was pumping out.  So I got myself two more units of brown liquid and downed them promptly, suddenly I didn't care about the sound that much.

"Hey, you alright buddy?"  I lift my head up from a wet wooden surface.  I noticed the bar has emptied substantially and the only ones left are sucking the only alcohol left in the place off each others faces.  I turned to the barkeep that woke me,
"Why'd you wake me?"  She gave me a look and said,
"Your head was lying in a pool of saliva and whiskey.  So I wanted to make sure you weren't dead! My apologies! Also that lady you were chattin' up paid me to send you home."  I looked towards where the barkeep was pointing and saw a bobbing head of hair disappear behind the bar door.  I fumble some bills out of my wallet onto the counter and scramble for the door.

I burst out of the bar exit onto the sullen cobblestones.  I see the increasingly bright head of hair accompanied by flashy red pumps turn into an alley.  I sprint/stumble to the alley coughing and wheezing the whole way.  When I get to the entrance of the alley I stop to catch my breath.  I hear a loud crack and a scream ring out into the cold night air.  I turn into the alley and see the woman I had been following was in the clutches of a dark figure with a riding crop.  A raspy masculine voice cried out,
"What do you mean you don't have all the money now?!" The cracks of the riding crop began again this time with increased frequency.  I felt all my muscles tighten with anger and I rushed the dark figure.  I brought him to the ground and vice his neck with my hands.  Up close I see that I am throttling a rough looking man with a scratchy beard and black pearl eyes. I watched him writhe in desperation as his ocular jewelry trembled at the sight of me.  Eventually his body stopped shaking and went limp.  I slowly rose and turned to the woman to see if she is alright.
"Hey, you alright?"  She says nothing.  I bring her into the light of the nearest street lamp.
"Ma'am, are you ok?"  The head of hair slowly rises up to meet my eyes.  I am greeted by a face covered in bruises and tears, but as I look closer I realize that this is a face I have met before. 
"I told you on the train that you shouldn't stay out too late..."