Waiting
Hello all! Here's the continuation of the City of Duhr stories that started with Exile's Journey continued with Outcast and now carries on.
Waiting
Walking into Vezun
I'm greeted by the familiar sights of
slumped
drunks
huddled around a U shaped bar
waiting.
Waiting for a drink
maybe a second chance
maybe just to die
everyone here is waiting
everyone except me.
For a moment
the beat and splintered bar
took me back to End Zone
where I enjoyed many nights
waiting
myself.
The bar keep
smells of bitter smoke
his eyes darkened from too many years wasted in Vezun
like the eyes of many around me.
Through his yellowed teeth
he spits on the floor
maybe on some glasses.
Slurring
"What you drinkin'?"
Looking to my compass
it spins.
I've found where I'm supposed to be
where Julia told me to be.
I look around for what I can't yet see and answer
"I don't drink anymore."
He spits again
this time towards me
maybe on purpose
"Then you'sin the wrong place."
snarled.
I look at the clock
7:34
I look at the compass
still spinning
slowing
slowwwing
stopping with a jitter
pointing to a corner of the bar
where a young woman sits
sad
alone
staring into a full glass of golden drink.
Her eyes just as golden as the drink
her skin pale as if never seeing a drop of sunlight
her hair a cascade of white rapids swirling and curling around her face.
I look back to the clock
7:35
I look back to the compass
steady pointing to the girl with the golden eyes.
Two men stride over to her
their chests full of self importance
their swagger full of fragile confidence.
They sit
they talk
she squirms
she looks for help
meeting my eyes
my brows raise in a silent question
she looks away
they slide closer
and I look back to the clock
7:36.
"Excuse me gentlemen."
Their conversation stops.
"Ma'am, are you okay?"
I ask
remembering the script I spoke
at 7:36 the night I met Julia
the night she sat alone in the corner at End Zone
the night two pretty boys sat down with her pressing for a night of fun
when she wanted a night alone
the night that...well the night that didn't turn out well for me.
"We're talking here."
Their attention turning to me
not her
the talking boy's eyes screaming for me to piss off
his friend's eyes sizing me up.
"I see you are talking but the lady is not."
I leave off my insults from the End Zone in hopes for different outcomes.
The friend slides out
towering over me
so tall
and wide with muscle
his body seemed to curl around mine like a cave swallowing me
in threat
and promise of pain.
"Ma'am, please use this time to find another quiet place."
And I swung with all I had
my fist an asteroid
the friend's face about to receive an extinction event
when my fist connects
but it doesn't
but his does and what an extinction event it is!
The bar goes fuzzy and quiet
as another asteroid strikes my gut
blowing all the wind out of me.
The other guy gets in a punch
as he comes around
I hit the floor
meeting kicks
meeting more punches
my head bouncing off the floor in wet thuds
and smacks turning the asteroids to meat tenderizers.
Looking up
the girl is gone
the boys still beating me
just like the end of End Zone
when Julia got away.
They stop
walking away
spitting on me
sneering
laughing.
Wiping thick bloody goop from my eyes
I look to the clock again
7:38
I look to the compass again
but cannot find it in my pocket.
It must have been lost in the fight
if you would call it that.
Laying on the floor
after a beating
you have time to think.
How did I end up here?
What should I have done differently?
Was it worth it?
And I remember the night
Julia sat alone in End Zone
and the boys sat with her
scooting too close
and drunk me trying to do something
and drunk me getting beaten by the boys
seeing Julia later that night
hearing about her boyfriend's overdose
hearing about how he was going to change
hearing her and maybe being the first person to listen
really listen to her in who knows how long.
I didn't fight to be a hero
I didn't fight to take the place of the boys
I fought because I couldn't leave her alone
waiting
for someone to step in.
And as I laid on the End Zone floor
in the cocktail of spills, blood and stickiness
I thought
How did I end up here?
The answer exploded in my mind like my nose on the boy's fist
I was tired of waiting.
"Thank you."
The golden eye girl whispered.
She stood over me
her golden drink still full.
"It's been a rough night. I needed to see a hero at work tonight of all nights."
I laugh through the gurgling blood
"Yeah, I'm not feeling too heroic tonight."
The guilt from the well
from Heather
still fresh.
She holds up her glass in a cheer.
"Feeling has nothing to do with it. Being is what matters."
with her other hand she motions to the liquid
dancing the golden fluid out of the glass
and gently washing it across my face
healing my beating
clearing the blood
and snot and tears.
Lifting her hand
flicking it towards her glass
the golden fluid flew up and back in
leaving a full glass once again.
"You've been to the City of Duhr."
She looks and points to some unseen thing around me
tracing my body with her finger.
"Why did you leave?"
"Was asked to leave."
"Ah."
A knowing smile crests her face
leaving me wondering what I don't know.
"Then your journey isn't quite done yet."
She reaches a hand out to help me up.
As she pulls me to my feet
her grip burns my hand
a faint golden glow
escaping the tiny gaps in our grasp.
"Good luck! I hope I see you when I arrive in Duhr but my journey isn't over yet either."
She pulls a paper from her pocket
examining it closely as she heads for the door.
I look to my hand
still throbbing from her grip
on my palm
a compass
golden
glowing
pointing
West.
Returning to the bar
I ask the bar keep
"What's west of here?"
He points to a picture on the wall
a painting
crashing waves
green skies
funnel clouds spearing through the water.
A sailors horror
my next destination
The Sea of Storms.
"Nex' coach ta The Sea a' Storms ain't till tamarra'. Ya wan' a room?"
"No"
I look back to the bar
seeing it lined with hunched broken souls
waiting
"I'm going tonight."
I'm done waiting.
<end>
Hope you enjoyed that. Let's see what happens on the Sea of Storms.