Summer in the City

Chapter 1 - Teenagers From Mars

1982

Anna

The radio blared as she moved the small antennas to find some kind of connection on the bed. All she received was some radio stations playing some slow ballads of an unknown artist. Some soft tune to try to cure the soul of a broken heart somewhere in the night. Anna only ran her hand through her hair as she looked around her motel room.

The sight of yellow pastel walls was becoming sickly to her sight and her brown luggage bag was now empty in the blank corner of the room.

She had put her clothing away hours ago, played with the radio for a couple minutes, and glanced at the phone a few times beside the bed, on the nightstand. There was no was no way they would call, especially not now, and probably not ever. Her phone would never ring unless there was guilt on the other side of the line. She didn't want to feel wrong, she wanted everything to feel exactly like how she had planned it.

But she was wrong. The memory's charged at her as she disagreed with them, the people she was supposed to listen to, how they informed her business school would be the best for her future. The memory already began to become hazy as she stood up quickly and reached for her beige jacket, without hitting a second thought she reached for the door and was already out in the air of a motel parking lot. An unknown place late at night. 

She was now in New York City and there was no way that she could predict anything that happened, or even protect herself if something did. She supposed she was just to accept whatever happened, and she began her walk.

She didn't not know exactly where she was going, but to avoid her thoughts she tried to remember her steps instead. She told herself she wouldn't go too far, she'd just have a short walk, a nice breath of fresh air. The city lights called her from afar, and when she had arrived downtown, she couldn't help crossing the street to reach the shining bright lights. She had only seen things like this in films, with people that had luck and success.

An old theater with fluorescent light bulbs sharing a movie release and ebony tones of dancers in fluorescent clothing. People who also lurked in the dark and took swigs of liquids in paper bags and women with fluorescent clothing walked around with long legs. Anna only held on to her jacket and tried not to look directly in the eyes of the people around her. Mostly admired the buildings across the street and yellow taxis that beeped at the traffic ahead.

She felt her stomach rumble as there was a slight breeze in the wind. The night was fresh and iIt was strangely a feeling she thought she always wanted. Even back home, being tired of her family being on her, on her decisions, her career choices. 

She wanted some individuality, maybe some alone time. So a part of her secretly enjoyed this, enjoyed this walk surrounded by people she didn't know. There couldn't be any reason for regrets now, she was already here in the city and she knew deep down that the people from the audition were not going to call her back. The way they looked at her, looked at her clothes, the way she stuttered in front of them, the judgement. She couldn't handle that, she couldn't take it.

Her head quickly turned to a purple lighted area that had caught her attention from the booming of some music.. It was what looked like a bar, and she knew that she was old enough to get inside. But she wasn't used to that back home, she would have never entered a bar back in (Where she is from).. She thought of it as a place for wild big motorcycle men, and a place where rough men came, similar to movie scenes. but she wasn't home, she was in New York City, so why not?

She entered the dimly lit place and it reminded her of a moist basement. The air was thick and humid. Once she really entered, it didn't seem so dark. There were tables with people, but not the people she had seen in movies. Young people in casual dress and they drank while they conversed. Anna had spotted an empty table by the side of the room.