Big City Nights

The transition from the pulsing strobes and pumping electro-rythmic DJ beats into the deserted city street was sobering. It was like passing through a wormhole into another world. She had stayed longer than she intended. She supposed it was that cute kid’s fault. Because of him she hadn’t noticed the thinning dance floor, nor the empty tables and bar stools that preceded the “last call” for drinks. It had been years since she had screamed along to, “The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire...”!!! Wasn’t it amazing that they still did that!

This business trip had given her a chance to cut loose one more time. She and Andy never went out anymore. She realized now how much she loved it, at least once in a while. Tonight had been a blast, up until now that is, but now it was quickly growing serious.

She pulled up. Maybe she should go back inside and call a cab, or an “Uber”, but it was only three or four blocks to the hotel. She focused her eyes until the blurriness that was her phone screen cleared. Shit, she was drunk. It was almost 3:00 am. What the hell was she doing? She wasn’t in college anymore! Christ, she was thirty-five years old, plenty old enough to know better. At least she had been sober enough to decline the kid’s invitation to go back to his place. It had been flattering, that’s all. He was simply affirmation that she still had ‘it’!

She had liquidated her cash into Jager shots. If she called someone she would have to pay with a card. Andy would see that. He would wonder about a 3:00 am bill when she had a fucking presentation to give tomorrow morning.

The street looked like a movie scene, like a deep, urban canyon with ancient streetlights dimly illuminating bumper-to-bumper lines of neglected, outdated cars. Steam flowed like smoke down its center from strategically spaced manhole covers. She could still get three or four hours of sleep if she got back to the hotel quickly. She would walk. She glanced left, and then right. She was a little bit mixed up. Was it left?

Left. She was sure it was left. She had made only one turn to get here, hopefully she would recognize it. She started out with shaky confidence. Her heels clicked loudly on the sidewalk, echoing from the concrete and brick. Anyone could hear her coming from a mile away. She started to take the annoying shoes off, but the concrete was filthy. She was being silly. It was only a few blocks!

Up ahead the traffic signal clicked loudly as it switched from green to red. She had never noticed how loud those things were! She tried to walk faster, but found herself weaving from the Jagermeister. On the next block, across the street there, a shadow moved. She crossed slowly at the walkway, giving the shadow time to go where-ever it was going. Her eyes darted this way and that. There were shadows everywhere. Deep shadows. The shadows would provide perfect cover for someone who wanted to... well, for someone bad. She didn’t want to think about someone like that right now. She had never been in a city at night. Not alone. She didn’t like it. She realized her vulnerability. She was not accustomed to feeling weak. She started walking faster again, damn the weaving. She imagined dangers now in every shadowed spot, and behind every lampost, or stoop.

The sounds of a couple fighting fell from somewhere above her like rain, soaking her in their fear. She heard their shouts plainly, then a feminine scream followed by breaking glass. A dumpster lid clanked down a darkened alley. Her heels clicked hard and fast now, like her pulse. This was stupid, she shouldn’t be here. She didn’t belong here. She looked down at her short dress, and her bare legs below it. She would go back to the dance club. She would get a cab. Screw Andy and his fucking questions. She hadn’t done anything wrong, had she? Just a regrettable kiss that had tasted of stale tobacco. She didn’t count the way she had grinded herself against that kid’s pelvis... that was just dancing, wasn’t it?

She turned to go back. She had come further than she thought. A block and a half away a knot of young men were gathered beneath a street lamp outside the club. The kids who had looked “cool” earlier in their knit caps and tattoos looked menacing now as they smoked their cigarettes and looked up the street in her direction. She turned back around, back toward the hotel. It was only two more blocks, but the very air around her reeked of garbage, and gasoline vapors, and people. Foolishly, she began to run.

The shoes were not made for running. The woman wearing them was in no condition to run. The combination was fatal. She was doing fairly well until she heard footsteps behind her, footsteps coming fast, slapping aggressively on the sidewalk. She tried to run even faster, but a stiletto heel struck a crack, an ankle turned, and the race ended with a thud, and in a bloody heap along the curb.

She gave up. She could hear him coming. She curled herself into a ball, the tears streaming down her face. He was going to kill her. She probably deserved it. She was acting shamelessly. This is what happened to people like her, wasn’t it? She watched movies, and she read the “Times” best-sellers. She just never thought it would happen to her.

She was lying in a ball when he came up to her, her body bathed in the neon light of a closed pharmacy. Her knees were scratched from her fall and the palms of her hands bloody from catching herself on the way down. Her dress was hiked up around her hips, exposing pretty thighs and panties. “Here, let me help you up.”

”No! Don’t touch me!”

”It’s ok! It’s me, Antonio, from the club?”

”Leave me alone.”

”I don’t think you need to be alone. This is not a good place. I’ll take you to your hotel.”

She rose slowly, testing her bruised and skinned body. Through her tears she saw the kid from the night club. He circled a comforting arm around her shoulders, “Come on, I know a shortcut. You can trust me.”

She put herself in his hands, giving in to her helplessness. She closed her eyes, letting him guide her where he would. He spoke soft, comfortable words as they walked. She laid her head on his shoulder.

It came to her as a shock. She realized it had been there for a while, she just hadn’t paid it heed in her exhaustion, and her need. His hand was cupped on her buttocks, gently squeezing. Her eyes flared open to find he had led her into a darkened alley. The fears flooded back. She gazed at him through lamb eyes, wide and round. Damnit! He had told her she could trust him!

He no longer looked like a kid. Young maybe, but he was tall, much taller than she was, and muscular. He stank of tobacco, and whiskey. She looked into eyes slanted and yellow.

”It’s a short-cut, Pretty Lady. Relax. Trust me.

Let’s dance one more dance.”