NIGHT TRAIN TO THE STARS AT THE ALL NIGHT CAFE

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Night Train To The Stars

At The All Night Cafe

It was raining........

(It always is in these kind of tales)

The night was dark and chilly

With a bitter wind howling

In between the raindrops

I was trying to finish my shift

And slip out of the cafe

Before the club crowd overtook us

As soon as the music died.

There was an old man

Sitting in the back booth mumbling

As he always did on Saturday nights

Drinking a cup of coffee

(Literally, one cup of coffee)

Nursing it for hours

Until it was as cold as ice

Making that buck twenty-five

Last till my boss gave him the evil eye.

My apron was a lovely shade 

Of ham and eggs

Twelve kinds of beverages

Two globs of catsup

Nine colors of what-the-hell

(I'm sure Hollywood

Would have been impressed)

The trucker in the corner was

He kept trying to catch my eye

And I kept going blind

And refilling his iced tea

While keeping my distance

From his hard driving hands.

Ah, there came the club kids

Nose rings, black eyeliner

Purple hair, half a skirt

Smelling like vodka

And dancing to music

That evidently played in the back

Of their minds

And that was just the boys

The girls were so ugly

They were beautiful

And so young

They made me feel ancient.

Somebody started the jukebox

If I hear "West End Girls" one more time

I'm gonna scream!

And I used to love that song

Two hundred thousand plays ago

Someone should change the songs

In that thing

Oh, great! There goes "The Sultans of Swing"

Again.....

The truck driver's favorite song

Along with "Money For Nothing."

Not what I work for, that's for sure

I work for nothing.

"You look tired, dear."

An older lady commented softly

And patted my hand as I made my rounds

"Yes, ma'am," I nodded and pushed back

A tendril of hair falling from behind my ear

"You have no idea."

She handed me a bill and smiled

"That's for you, sweetie."

I shoved it into my greasy pocket

And it wasn't until later

That I saw, to my shock

That it was a hundred dollar bill.

"Rainy Night in Georgia" was playing now

And loneliness overtook me

As it always did when I heard that song

On a Saturday night when it was raining

And I was working for nothing

In this crowded little cafe

In downtown Nowhere City

I should be on a stage somewhere, I thought

Or on t.v...... in a movie.......

At the very least, in a commercial

For Purina Dog Chow or T.G.I.Fridays

When would I ever catch a break?

"I'm gonna catch a night train to the stars."

The old man with the coffee

Suddenly announced and got to his feet

"I hear ya, mister." I said tiredly

"You catch one for me."

And he looked at me strangely

As I began to mop the table

And take away his cup still half full

Of black caffeine

"No, really, I'm gonna do it." he insisted

"Tonight's the night. Taking that night train

Right up to the stars. You'll see."

And he pulled his tattered coat on

And went out the door in a blast of rain and wind

While I deposited his dollar twenty five

Inside the register.

A sad looking black guy, a regular 

Put some change in the jukebox

And "I Can't Make You Love Me"

By the heartbreaking Bonnie Raitt starts up

"Oh, great!" I say out loud

"Now I'll have to kill myself!"

And all the customers look at me

And the boss looks at me and the black guy

Looks at me and shrugs and flashes

A million kilowatt smile

"Well, girl," he says, "If you would just

Give me the time of day

I wouldn't have to play that song no more."

And he kinda laughs and everybody laughs

But I notice that his smile fades before

They stop laughing.

"Phone call for you." the boss tells me

And tries to hand me the phone

But I say, "Tell them I'm not here

I have never been here, I ain't never

Gonna be here and you have no idea

Where I am or even if I exist."

He makes an exasperated sound

And turns his back, talking into the phone

Above the noise of a motorcycle gang

Making their grand entrance

Into our glorious establishment.

"It's your lover." the boss says 

With his hand over the phone

And a wicked gleam in his eye

And the club kids with their Patty Melts

And the motorcycle guys with their chains

All kind of snicker and watch to see

What I will do

"He's my stalker!" I retort

"I have nothing to say to him!"

And I run to the back and leave

The whole cafe waiting there

With baited breath for the next episode

Of my pathetic little waitress life.

I take off the filthy apron

And the faded peach uniform

In the tiny restroom hardly big enough

For a toddler

Pull on my jeans and tight white Tee,

Put on some pink lipstick, run a brush

Through my unruly curls

And thrust my weary feet 

Into some stiletto heels

That I know are gonna be the death of me

But at that moment, I didn't care.

"Where do you think you're going!?"

The boss screams like he's my daddy

When he sees me rounding the counter

Clutching my jacket and my fake leather purse

Making a bee line for the glass door

And the freedom of the dark, city streets

"I've been working for 10 hours, man." I say

"I've got to get out of here."

"You can't leave me like this!" he bellows

And every customer in the place, to a man

Bellows, "Yeah, you can't leave us like this!"

And they all erupt in raucous laughter.

A police car flies past the door, lights flashing

Sirens piercing my eardrums as a roll of thunder

Crashes over my head

I step outside into the rain and wind

Holding my jacket over my head and wishing

I had a decent coat

To my right I see the police car come to a stop

Out by the train tracks

I hear the wail of an ambulance 

Slamming it's way through volumes of traffic

And I briefly wonder what's going on

But my mind is only full of myself.

"Baby, it's cold out side." 

I hear a familiar voice singsong into my ear

And an arm goes round my waist and turns

Me away from the lights and trouble

And I am pressed up against the cafe wall

And kissed by a man who probably

Should be on his way to prison

"You've got to stop doing this." I warn

And let him fold me into his warmth

And hunger and loneliness and love

"I can't." he breathes, his dark eyes flashing

In the neon

"I can't live without you. I want you to come home."

"Maybe someday." I say and try to pull away

But not really wanting to

"I've got these big dreams, you know

I want to be somebody, do something great

Before I get old and die. I can't do that

In no god-forsaken small ass country town."

"Yes, you can." he insists and pulls me closer

"I'll help you. We'll get married and I'll buy you

The moon and the stars. I'll get rich. I'll take you

To Hollywood in a big limousine and everybody

Will see that my girl is the most beautiful girl in the world."

But I know that will never happen

Johnny's just a country boy running his daddy's farm

Nobody ever got rich farming

My folks don't have two dimes to rub together

My sister works at the Dairy Queen

My brother at the Save-A-Lot

None of their dreams will ever come true

I can't go back there

Not even for this tall, hard-bodied man with dark eyes

That I love with almost all my heart.

"Please." he whispers and I shake my head

And turn back to the scene of the ongoing tragedy,

Rain hitting me in the face now as I drop my jacket

And watch them loading an old man onto a gurney

His face covered with a white sheet

"The Coffee Man!" I exclaim and feel a lump 

Start to form in my throat

"Dude, did you see that!?" a teenager shouts

Across the street to another

"That old guy just walked right into an oncoming train!"

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" I cry and bury my face

In my lover/stalker's muscled chest

"Come on, baby, let me buy you a cup of coffee."

And I let him lead me back inside, sit me down

At the Coffee Man's table and hold me tenderly

As I cry, not just for the tragedy, but for him

And for me and for all my dreams and mislaid plans

My tired feet and my restless mind

"He really did take the night train to the stars."

I say finally, pulling myself away against the window

"And maybe those are the only stars he'll ever see."

I could hear the sirens fading into the distance

As the thunder roared and the sky poured down

It's icy, silver tears almost as cold as my heart

The room was still full of customers, young and old,

Black and white, low and high

You could barely hear the tinkle of ice in sweaty glasses

No one laughed, no one coughed, no one got up and left

Someone had pulled the jukebox cord out of the wall

Either that or the thing 

Had finally given up it's outdated ghost and died

The words of Bonnie Raitt's sad song

Bounced off the walls and crashed to the floor

Like tiny shards of defeated prayer

There was nothing to say

And for the first time in ten hours.......

The world was strangely silent.

©by Voo

August 30, 07

midnight 

I Can't Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt