Neon Soliloquies(scene 1)

Floating among the endless ocean of a dark velvet night, the stars watched quietly as my date and I made our way along the sidewalk that led to her front door. At this late hour, our footsteps were magnified by the silence of the sleeping neighborhood. Her footfalls were light taps on the concrete, sending delicate echoes bouncing gracefully off of the wall. Mine were a deeper, more off-beat rhythm and I remembered that someone had once told me that you can tell more about a person by the way that they move than you can by what they say. I snuck a quick glance at my date and tried to decipher what her body motions were revealing. We reached the front door and the stars above listened curiously, whispering to each other, taking bets on to what would happen next.

My date and I already knew. We had not discussed the matter, but each of us had made our internal evaluations of one another and had reached a tally of our relationship. Although we enjoyed each other’s company, the spark of interest never moved beyond companionship. If we would have tried to force the issue, go against what our instincts told us, then our involvement would have spiraled downward until we crashed and went our separate ways. Instead, we followed our intuition and said goodnight. She was relieved that I didn’t expect to come in and I was relieved that she didn’t ask. The stars were a bit disappointed, but were content with the knowledge that they were witnessing the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

On the drive home I felt the old urge to explore slowly build inside me. I found a radio station that played jazz from around the globe and the strange music became a homing beacon, leading me down roads that I had never driven on before. I used to roam when I was younger, following some unseen whisper that led me across the borders of unknown cities and states, but it had been a long while, maybe a lifetime ago, since I had wandered just for the sake of finding someplace new. I relaxed and let the whims of fate guide me. Eventually, a neon message glowed in the distance and I knew that my destination was revealing itself. I pulled into the parking lot of Delbert’s Café and turned off my vehicle’s engine. As I scanned the vehicles of the parking lot I noticed my reflection in the rearview mirror. I was smiling. I love old all-night places like this. This is where you get to see little one-act plays of life’s off-Broadway shows. The stories that never make it to the big stage, just like the people who are in them. This is a glimpse of real life played out by the actors who follow a script that changes from one moment to the next. Actors that give the best performance because they are not acting out life, they are living it. Sometimes it is a good existence, sometimes bad. Either way, the people in places like this all have a story to tell, even if they don’t know that they are telling it. The show began as soon as I walked through the door.

To be continued…