Yeah, I stand at this corner; I\u2019m waiting.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019ve been waiting a long time.\u00c2\u00a0 This is Midnight, the City of Night, where dreams have failed and nightmare has taken over the day.\u00c2\u00a0 There\u2019s no sun, there\u2019s only the slightest sliver of hope, and there\u2019s a million souls who will gladly shovel these lies into your hungry damn mouth.<\/p>\n
This is Midnight, but the drugs are not as rampant as you think, the hookers not as talented, the whiskey not…well, no, the whiskey\u2019s always fine in Midnight.\u00c2\u00a0 You might be able to count on nothing else, but the whiskey is smooth and thick and plentiful.<\/p>\n
For every dirty junkie, for every murderous madman, for every underground hopeful with a mean streak, there\u2019s a homeless guy leaving pennies, heads up, to give other people the luck he never had, there\u2019s a mysterious ghostly nurse they call Nightingale, there\u2019s a gypsy princess giving away love potions outside the Museum of Curiosities.\u00c2\u00a0 Along with the criminals, this city has got seamstresses.\u00c2\u00a0 The subways carry politicians and florists alike.<\/p>\n
Yeah, there are flowers in this city where the sun never shines.\u00c2\u00a0 Got a problem with that?<\/p>\n
I want nothing, I need nothing, I lean against this dry brick building, I peer out at the streets from underneath the brim of my hat, I keep my hands in the pockets of my long, dusty coat.\u00c2\u00a0 I say nothing to nobody.\u00c2\u00a0 I offer nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m not selling anything, and I\u2019m not buying.\u00c2\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing you can offer I can\u2019t get cheaper somewhere else, and there\u2019s nothing I\u2019ve got you want.\u00c2\u00a0 Believe me.\u00c2\u00a0 The only thing in my hand in my pocket is a .357 Oliveri.\u00c2\u00a0 They don\u2019t make those with safeties.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m short tempered, and I\u2019m angry.<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m not angry at you.\u00c2\u00a0 You haven\u2019t done anything to me.\u00c2\u00a0 I don\u2019t care to know your name or your story, your thoughts or feelings, your cares or worries.\u00c2\u00a0 Just keep right on walking.\u00c2\u00a0 There\u2019s a subway station up the street.\u00c2\u00a0 We\u2019re not far from the garden.\u00c2\u00a0 One or two of the museums.\u00c2\u00a0 St. Lazarus\u2019 Cathedral, if you\u2019re the type.\u00c2\u00a0 But you don\u2019t want to stop and ask me the time, or pause and light a cigarette in my direct line of sight.\u00c2\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to get a smile out of me.<\/p>\n
Maybe you deserve one.\u00c2\u00a0 I don\u2019t know, and like I said, I don\u2019t care.\u00c2\u00a0 You need a smile, get it from the girl up the street, she\u2019s selling something you might want.\u00c2\u00a0 Or the punk around the corner.\u00c2\u00a0 The Goth kid.\u00c2\u00a0 The student.\u00c2\u00a0 The cops, those two across the street, pretending not to see me as they hurry on their way.\u00c2\u00a0 Yeah, they know the deal.\u00c2\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing I\u2019ve done, nothing they can prove anyhow.\u00c2\u00a0 They don\u2019t harass me, why would you?<\/p>\n
Think you\u2019ve got something to prove?\u00c2\u00a0 I ain\u2019t interested.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m good.\u00c2\u00a0 But don\u2019t ask.\u00c2\u00a0 I won\u2019t thank you.\u00c2\u00a0 Like I said, I\u2019m waiting, and you\u2019re not the reason for it.<\/p>\n
One of the gypsies came into the city yesterday.\u00c2\u00a0 Old, she was, like dirt, like dust, like the earth itself, and maybe even older than this hole of a city.\u00c2\u00a0 She said something about art, something about whiskey, something about sapphires, something about history.\u00c2\u00a0 I asked what she wanted with me.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, you,\u201d she said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t want nothing from you, child.\u201d\u00c2\u00a0 She called me child, if you believe that.\u00c2\u00a0 You try it, I\u2019ll introduce you, good and personal, to a bullet between the eyes.\u00c2\u00a0 But this old gypsy woman, she had more to say, and I thought I wanted to hear it.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cThe ones who want you,\u201d she said, \u201cthey ain\u2019t gonna be so kind as me.\u00c2\u00a0 They gonna come from the woods, from the north, from someplace you know nothing about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s lots of places I know nothing about,\u201d I told her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, you\u2019re right,\u201d she said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cBut you will know.\u00c2\u00a0 You will.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis what you came into the city to tell me, lady?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cFool,\u201d she said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m here to read your fortune.\u201d\u00c2\u00a0 Anyone else call me fool, after calling me child, they\u2019d be dead.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m here to read your card.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI only get one?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think you need more?\u201d<\/p>\n
I shrugged.\u00c2\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t given it any thought, and I didn\u2019t have any basis for it then.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cSo what\u2019s my card, then?\u201d<\/p>\n
She showed me.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a picture of two naked people holding hands.\u00c2\u00a0 Not what you\u2019d call high art.\u00c2\u00a0 She said, \u201cAh, the Lovers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, like I said, I am waiting.\u00c2\u00a0 This lifted my spirits.\u00c2\u00a0 The city will do that to you sometimes, give you that little bit of hope, that blue sapphire glitter.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u2019ll give you a reason to live when you don\u2019t want to.\u00c2\u00a0 Or it\u2019ll make you a legend.\u00c2\u00a0 You know about the Suicide Penthouse over at the Towers, right?\u00c2\u00a0 Yeah, well, the old gypsy woman wasn\u2019t smiling, she wasn\u2019t happy at all.\u00c2\u00a0 She said, \u201cThat\u2019s not what I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019d you expect?\u201d<\/p>\n
She said, \u201cDeath.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a cruel bitch,\u201d I said, and she laughed.\u00c2\u00a0 And she left.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019m still waiting.\u00c2\u00a0 Not for you.\u00c2\u00a0 A woman, of course.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m like any other guy.\u00c2\u00a0 For the right woman, I\u2019d kill, I\u2019d die, I\u2019d bleed out in the gutters of Midnight, I\u2019d wrestle the goddess of night herself, I\u2019d steal from thieves, I\u2019d climb that mountain, that one right there, into the heart of the prison, if necessary, I\u2019d break into the Historical Society, into City Hall, I\u2019d break out of Midnight and bring her back to a world with sunshine and happiness.\u00c2\u00a0 For the right woman, I\u2019d give up the gun, the life, the night, the dark.<\/p>\n
I saw her once, a long time ago.\u00c2\u00a0 She smiled, in exactly the way I\u2019m not gonna smile for you, she winked, and she blew me a kiss.\u00c2\u00a0 You call it what you will, I call it torture.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a dream, I know, but this was the street corner.\u00c2\u00a0 No one knows this city better than I.\u00c2\u00a0 This was the place, and she was the woman, and she\u2019s as real as the ghosts at Mirage Station, she\u2019s as real as wind and oranges and clocks.\u00c2\u00a0 She made me a promise.\u00c2\u00a0 I intend to let her keep it.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019m gonna keep standing here.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m gonna keep holding this damn wall up.\u00c2\u00a0 And I\u2019m gonna keep scowling at you until I decide I\u2019m hungry.\u00c2\u00a0 And I won\u2019t apologize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yeah, I stand at this corner; I\u2019m waiting.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019ve been waiting a long time.\u00c2\u00a0 This is Midnight, the City of Night, where dreams have failed […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,6,2,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}