Siren's Song

       I was finishing another walk, dead tired around ten at night, when I heard another melody blending in over my CD player’s sly tunes. I removed the hard plastic headphones to better listen to these intriguing melodies. Moving closer, following echoes through the warm night’s air, I found the source of the heavenly tones. It was a young woman, in her twenties I would guess, long black hair, and a matching low cut dress, as well as a trio of young men teasing their instruments just to the right of her. I stood there for a while, lost in the sounds of their music, toning out the rest of the world, and losing time in the process. I was immediately taken by her voice, falling into a warmer place deep within my mind, and if it had not been for my own musical accompaniment I would have stayed standing there all night. Yet, the CD player I had left playing occasionally pierced the band’s composition, and during a short pause in between two songs, the music blasting through my head phones lulled me back into reality. Trying not to linger any longer than I had, I was off again without much thought about what I had just heard.

       I made it back home, tired from having been walking all day, and I sat down to watch the local news. Yet it seemed, that no matter how much I tried to concentrate on the story, I kept going back to that place in my mind, I kept going back to that woman’s voice, and the soothing melodies of her band mates. I got dressed again, having stripped off most of my clothes upon entering the air condition-less apartment which had become sticky from the heat during my walk, and headed back to where I had heard that voice.

       Unfortunately, when I arrived the band had already left. I looked around, seeing if I could pick them out, sitting in the crowd, but to no avail; however, I did see a waitress, who I sought out for more information.
       Shouting over the music being blasted through the speakers I said, “That band... the one here about an hour ago...”
       She nodded.
       “Do they perform here often?” I finally concluded.
       “No,” she said swiftly, “and I doubt they’ll be back anytime soon.”
       “Thanks.” I replied, along with some random hand gesture, and I went back to my search of the area.

       After numerous attempts I decided that they were not in the room, and had probably left right after their show’s conclusion. I started to head home, trying to shrug it all off, but the more I tried to forget it, the more the music and her voice echoed within my mind. I stopped, making sure I was alone, making sure I wasn’t losing my mind, trying to clear these reverberations from my head. But standing there I could hear her clearly, singing; singing to me. Closing my eyes, and remembering when I had seen her earlier, listening to this perfect memory in my head, almost reliving it to the fullest detail. But this time there was another sound, something that hadn’t been there the first time. I realized it wasn’t part of the music, but something outside of that moment. I jumped, startled and wondering what had just happened to me. Looking around, I was standing in the middle of the street, and a city bus was sitting so close to me I could touch it with my hand. Bright lights shown down from every angle, and after the driver blew the large machine’s horn again, I decided it best to be somewhere other than the middle of the street. I ran to the curb, confused and worried about myself, when I realized I wasn’t anywhere I needed to be. Wherever I was, it definitely wasn’t the direction home. I struggled, trying to remember how I had gotten here, but all I could recall was the music, and that woman’s voice. In remembering the path back where I had came, I starting getting lost in the sounds again; swaying with the rhythm of the music, and the more I tried to focus, the deeper I fell into the music’s charms. Almost having closed my eyes again, I forced myself out of the dream like state. I knew I had to focus, no more thinking about that music, for I had to find my way back home. I looked around, trying to determine my location in the city. I was unfamiliar with this area, and nothing was looked familiar to me. I looked up, trying to see the stars; not as if I could navigate by them anyway, but it was an idea. There were no cars, no taxis, no people, and aside from that bus, there were no signs of life at all. I came to a decision on which direction would be best, but after only a few minutes of walking, I started to hear her voice again. That sweet seductive voice, engulfing me as I walked in step to the music’s beat. The more I walked, the louder she became. I thought it was in my head until I realized that I had followed the sounds to a bar.

       Tonight the city is warm, and being in a place so unfamiliar makes me even warmer. This wasn’t the type of place you would go without good reason, and even then I would question how good the reason was, but here I was, standing in front of a bar I had never seen before. I thought it wasn’t a good idea to go inside considering the effect this music has had on me so far, but being lost, in a less than ideal portion of the city I was in desperate need of directions. I peaked inside, to insure that there really was a band playing, and sure enough, it was them. ‘Not impossible,’ I thought to myself. ‘Two gigs in one night, it happens.’ I ventured inside, rather uneasy about the whole experience, for the deeper I walked into this dark place the more unsettling it became to me. The place was empty mostly; there was a couple in a dark corner, hiding with good reason I imagine, and a large man in leather sitting at the bar. I found a seat near the bar, one of the cleaner ones I had decided after some debate, and looked about for who was in charge. Aside from the three people I just mentioned, the band, and myself, the bar seemed completely empty. I asked the man at the bar where he had gotten his drink, to which he mumbled something inaudible and pointed towards the bathrooms. I decided to leave him be, and just wait for the bar tender to come out from hiding, when I found myself closing my eyes again. I tried to fight it, but the more I resisted the music, the more I wanted to release myself to it’s rhythm. I am not sure how much time had passed, or what had happened while my eyes were closed, but when I came to, the bar tender was staring me straight in the face. I looked around, peaking through the corners of my eyes not wanting to look more foolish then I already felt; and I noticed the place was quite busy compared to when I had arrived.

       I looked back at the bar tender, who in an impatient tone said, “So?!”
       “So, what?” I asked, feeling as if I should know the answer.
       “So whado you want?!” He said, more irritated than before.
       “Uhhh, what’s the best way out of here.” I said, still dazed from my foolish slumber.
       Laughing a little, he replied, “That depends on where you wanna go, kid.”
       “How about the bridge, I can figure the rest from there.”
       “Well,” he began, pausing to form a map in his head I suppose. “Your gonna wanna go right soon as you get out of here. Soonna or lata you gonna come up on some watta, follow it to da bridge.”
       “Thanks.” I said, trying to record his directions in my mind, while wondering if he had any sort of speech impediment. “Oh yeah!” I started, waving a hand to regain his attention. “The band that was here earlier... do they play here often?”
       He stared at me, with a frightening look upon his face, and said, “We don’t have no band here.”
       “Yeah, not now, the one that was here earlier. They...” I tried to continue.
      When suddenly he interrupted, “Your not listnen kid, we don’t have no bands in here.”
       I tried to speak again, “Earlier, when you where in the bathroooo...”
       But again he burst in, “Kid! This joint doesn’t have bands in here, look round.”

       I stopped, turning about, taking in the full atmosphere for the first time. The stage where the band had been performing earlier was dark now, a DJ set atop it with a crude home-made smoke machine bellowing out thick air from beneath his seat. I continued looking around; trying to find someone from earlier, to help collaborate my story, but the couple from earlier as well as the large man were gone, lost to a sea of new faces. Leaving the bar tender to his astonishment, I went around to every person in the room that night, and none of them had any idea of the band that was playing there earlier. Some had even insisted they had been there all night, and that it was simply impossible for a band to have been playing without them knowing about it. I eventually gave up, or finally became tired of listening to the strangers mocking me, and decided on following the bar tender’s directions back home. The walk to the water was brisk, as this neighborhood was not to my liking, and everything was exactly where he had said it would be. Following the water line, I eventually made my way back to the bridge, back to familiar territory. When I arrived home, I was suddenly overcome with the feeling of exhaustion, and looking down at my watch, my blurring eyes made out that it was nearly six in the morning. Falling down onto my bed, closing my eyes with my shoes still on, I came to the conclusion that I had spent the entire night in search of something so alluring, that it possibly didn’t even exist.