I rememberthe bar.
Though I dont know why.
I mean, it was nothing special. Id been in places like that before. But this was different somehow. The light cut through the old haze of smoke and sex appeal to make it appear as if the real world was calling you back outside. But still they sat. Helpless in the eye of an oncoming storm that they would never see. Their empire was about to collapse. People didnt need to come to bars these days to feel worse about themselves. They could do that just outside on the street, gazing into someones eyes.
Blue
Blue! They were blue I remember now. Those eyes were the sort of blue youd question yourself in. Which I did, several times. Like, why was I in this shitty job again? It certainly wasnt the pay. Because, Every note I hit, every key i touched somehow brought me closer to them. That was more gratification than a plastic note could ever bring. They needed me, and I..needed them. I was lost without these souls. I needed to feel somethinganything.And they helped bring me closer to
Closer,
Closer she walked.
At once transforming from a lost thought, a shadow in the corner, into a graceful creature that prowled the bar, seeking her fortunes. It struck me to think such beauty was wasted in a hole like this. But she kept on walking, Right up.to me. My fingers slipped from E minor to O my God! She didnt notice, they never do. You could make a hundred mistakes in a place like this, and theyd still applaud and praise you as if you were Ludwig Van himself. They didnt come here to be critics. They came here for peace. A brief rest before facing the onslaught that is life. A life that is short, but no less more loved.
Love. Is that what it was?
No, but first sight told me that she wanted something. She wanted a song. A gift to the world that only I could give her. Though it would be an empty box this time around. Id never heard of that song.
Panic.
What was I to do, to keep this glimpsing moment of pure bliss from fading back into the shadows? Well, she answered that one, with a question that is.
would you like to join me?
Shit.
Half an hour before the end of a shift, and this six foot Goddess in a black dress asks me to join her. Could I just get up and leave, halfway through a second movement of a fifth opus, and run off to spend the rest of my natural life with this woman with no name?
Sure. But, not tonight. Boss would surely ride my ass. I was already on the verge of losing what humanity and dignity I had stuck together and held by this place, this rift in time. I couldnt risk it.
Could I?
Could I?
Who knew what waited at the end of that question?
She did.
Well, Ill be waiting for you
I smiled as she turned away. My hands began to move across the keys in a familiar way, provoked and encouraged by her familiar smile. Id been seeing it lately. On every street corner, at every bus stop, There it would be. The smile on a woman Id thought Id known my whole life, but only met once. Id try to recall where I had seen that smile before. But I knew Id seen it on a hundred different people, a hundred different times. Maybe thats all it was. A collection of memories, theres to remind you, someone was still thinking of you. As the time passed my eyes kept cautiously scanning the room. Making sure not to lose sight. Who was I kidding? Ive been blind since I can remember. Giving up homework and sports for hours spent dreaming in front of the idiot box, My gaze held by the dreamy smile of Audrey Hepburn. Hoping that one day, I just might be lucky enough to live the movie fantasy so many of us had wished for. Was it so wrong to believe in something? To believe that good things can happen to good people? Call me desperate, Call me pathetic, Id just say to you Im eternally optimistic, and forever more.
My little finger hit the final key for that night, and my ass was out of that chair before the note stopped ringing. I fell into shadow. I became one of them again. I was no longer the knight in ivory amour. My cape and spandex have been retired for the night in the search for love. My feet dragged me towards the place where She had been sitting. I remembered it as if it was like stumbling home drunk. You just know. I just knew. She was nowhere to be seen. I searched the shadows in a vague hope. The only remaining memory was a matchbox. I fingered it lightly flipping it over to read the print, scrawled in hurried handwriting
My sweet prince followed closely by a ruby red stain in the form of lips. An ideological rhetoric, isnt it, this love of mine?
It is indeed.
Though I dont know why.
I mean, it was nothing special. Id been in places like that before. But this was different somehow. The light cut through the old haze of smoke and sex appeal to make it appear as if the real world was calling you back outside. But still they sat. Helpless in the eye of an oncoming storm that they would never see. Their empire was about to collapse. People didnt need to come to bars these days to feel worse about themselves. They could do that just outside on the street, gazing into someones eyes.
Blue
Blue! They were blue I remember now. Those eyes were the sort of blue youd question yourself in. Which I did, several times. Like, why was I in this shitty job again? It certainly wasnt the pay. Because, Every note I hit, every key i touched somehow brought me closer to them. That was more gratification than a plastic note could ever bring. They needed me, and I..needed them. I was lost without these souls. I needed to feel somethinganything.And they helped bring me closer to
Closer,
Closer she walked.
At once transforming from a lost thought, a shadow in the corner, into a graceful creature that prowled the bar, seeking her fortunes. It struck me to think such beauty was wasted in a hole like this. But she kept on walking, Right up.to me. My fingers slipped from E minor to O my God! She didnt notice, they never do. You could make a hundred mistakes in a place like this, and theyd still applaud and praise you as if you were Ludwig Van himself. They didnt come here to be critics. They came here for peace. A brief rest before facing the onslaught that is life. A life that is short, but no less more loved.
Love. Is that what it was?
No, but first sight told me that she wanted something. She wanted a song. A gift to the world that only I could give her. Though it would be an empty box this time around. Id never heard of that song.
Panic.
What was I to do, to keep this glimpsing moment of pure bliss from fading back into the shadows? Well, she answered that one, with a question that is.
would you like to join me?
Shit.
Half an hour before the end of a shift, and this six foot Goddess in a black dress asks me to join her. Could I just get up and leave, halfway through a second movement of a fifth opus, and run off to spend the rest of my natural life with this woman with no name?
Sure. But, not tonight. Boss would surely ride my ass. I was already on the verge of losing what humanity and dignity I had stuck together and held by this place, this rift in time. I couldnt risk it.
Could I?
Could I?
Who knew what waited at the end of that question?
She did.
Well, Ill be waiting for you
I smiled as she turned away. My hands began to move across the keys in a familiar way, provoked and encouraged by her familiar smile. Id been seeing it lately. On every street corner, at every bus stop, There it would be. The smile on a woman Id thought Id known my whole life, but only met once. Id try to recall where I had seen that smile before. But I knew Id seen it on a hundred different people, a hundred different times. Maybe thats all it was. A collection of memories, theres to remind you, someone was still thinking of you. As the time passed my eyes kept cautiously scanning the room. Making sure not to lose sight. Who was I kidding? Ive been blind since I can remember. Giving up homework and sports for hours spent dreaming in front of the idiot box, My gaze held by the dreamy smile of Audrey Hepburn. Hoping that one day, I just might be lucky enough to live the movie fantasy so many of us had wished for. Was it so wrong to believe in something? To believe that good things can happen to good people? Call me desperate, Call me pathetic, Id just say to you Im eternally optimistic, and forever more.
My little finger hit the final key for that night, and my ass was out of that chair before the note stopped ringing. I fell into shadow. I became one of them again. I was no longer the knight in ivory amour. My cape and spandex have been retired for the night in the search for love. My feet dragged me towards the place where She had been sitting. I remembered it as if it was like stumbling home drunk. You just know. I just knew. She was nowhere to be seen. I searched the shadows in a vague hope. The only remaining memory was a matchbox. I fingered it lightly flipping it over to read the print, scrawled in hurried handwriting
My sweet prince followed closely by a ruby red stain in the form of lips. An ideological rhetoric, isnt it, this love of mine?
It is indeed.