Tag: Metropolis ACR

Desmond’s Journey – “Metropolis”

Back to work when the sun goes down. Brooklyn JMZ into the city. Transfer at Washington square. Down to the Triangle.

Rising from below like the living dead, into the sun, the lights shocking my eyes. Walking those ten minutes between the subway and the bar always felt so good. But that feeling never lasted. Some days the city’s a vampire, it steals all your best moments. They come and go in seconds, and fade away. You end up remembering only the worst.

Tending bar at Bad Weather. I just walked in and they handed me a shaker. Took me on for my ravishing looks. I think the owner had a little crush. My winning smile.

‘Hey what’s that drink you invented?’

I laughed at my past. I laughed at my family. Joked about everything, even the end of the world.

‘I had it last time.’

‘The Shirley Templar?’

‘Shirley Templar? What’s in it?’

‘The usual, I just add some gin.’

‘Right on. Four of those!’

There was a big dream floating out there. And every night I saw people dreaming it. I don’t know how they did it. It takes as much money to smile as to pay the rent in this place.

The more I missed my family, the more I hated myself for it. I told myself I wanted a new family. I wanted to start over.

‘Hey Dez! You going to the after party?’

‘Nah, I’m a little out of it.’

Lights. Action. Bass drum. Mind-numbing. One hundred twenty four beats per. Twice the speed of a beating heart.

‘So where are you from?’

‘He was raised in a cult or something like that. You know, out west!’

‘My parents were conspiracy freaks. They live off the grid in the woods!’

‘Seriously?’

God, they all looked so good. The girls in their skirts, batting eyes, the beads of sweat. Everyone was so beautiful in those flashing lights.

‘You wanna dance?’

I was a new man. Born again. Alone but alive. Trying to forget.

‘Come on!’

Let go, Desmond. Just let it go. Forget it.