City Of Dreams

Seventy-Five

I sit at the dining room table alone.

I press the home button on my phone.

It's dry.

Darren is late.

He was supposed to be home from his show an hour ago.

I take a deep breath and turn on the radio.

Some news lady blabbers on about an eclipse.

I stare at the chairs around the table.

Why do we have so many chairs around this table?

We never have this many people over.

We hardly ever even sit here!

My arm reaches the counter and adjusts the channel on the radio.

A few notes come through the device.

I recognize it, but it takes me a moment to realize what song I was listening to.

I missed a bit of it.

"Empty chairs at empty tables. Now my friends are dead and gone."

I bite my lip and stand up.

"Here they talked of revolution."

I smiled, thinking of Mitch, Angel, Chris, David , and Katie sitting around the table "doing homework" and talking about what to do when we got out of school.

"Here it was they lit the flame."

I noticed it was the movie version.

I giggled, remembering Addie say she only liked the movie because of Hugh Jackman.

"Here they sang about tomorrow."

The AC kicked on, making me shiver.

"And tomorrow never came."

My smile dropped from my face and onto the floor next to me.

"At a table in the corner, we could see a world reborn. And they rose with voices ringing."

I remembered hanging at Lovely's, and Mitch almost getting us kicked out every time.

"And I can hear them now. The very words that they have sung became their last communion."

I get a sudden headache.

"Anthony, call the hospital. She isn't breathing."

Something goes off in my head.

Something I had never thought about before.

The last thing Katie said to me.

We were at this table.

She was sad and sick.

But she wore a smile.

The words rang like a bell in my head.

"All my money's on you Charlotte Lillian."

Before I even tried out for Hamilton or Heights.

She believed in me.

Before I graduated.

She believed in me.

Before I went to the Tonys.

She believed in me.

"...shit."

I whispered and sat back down to calm my headache.

My phone makes a noise.

I reach out and touch the screen.

The screen shows a notification for the Bible app I never use.

"On this lonely barricade at dawn."

I remember Darren.

"My friends, my friends, forgive me. That I live and you are gone."

I tune out the music and text Darren for the tenth time.

Hubbie- D, where are you?

I begin to pay attention to the music again.

"Phantom faces at the window! Phantom shadows on the floor!"

The screen of my phone goes out.

I stare at myself in the reflection of the screen.

"Empty chairs at empty tables where my friends will meet no more."

I don't notice the tears until one falls on my hand.

I wipe them away and stand up.

"Empty chairs at empty tables where my friends will sing no more..."

I slam the button on the stereo to turn it off.

I pick up my phone, my jacket, and my keys and hurry out the door.

Empty chairs at empty tables.