“Jazz Club”
Sep 21, 2019Do you ever feel like sweet sexy jazz? The guitar strings vibrate at a frequency that is too low to hear, but you can feel it in your soul.
The man wondered to himself, have I done something to offend the jazzman?
It’s a dark night and the jazz club is mostly empty. A man sits at the bar, nursing a beer. A waitress hangs out in the back. A couple sits at a small table in the middle of the place, barely paying attention to the guitarist on stage. They giggle at each other and the man touches the lady’s leg and she blushes. The waitress in the back yawns and walks over to them and asks if they want something else to drink. It’s way past her bedtime but then it always is every night she has to work. She’d rather be home, snuggling in bed with her cat, sipping chamomile and swipe swipe swiping on her phone. Instead, she has to watch couples in love every night, the reminder of how lonely she is. The couple ignores her so she walks over to the bar. Charlie is tending and he looks just as bored as the guy sitting across from him. They don’t speak, just glance at each other occasionally.
The guitarist plays his heart out but he’s not very good at playing. It’s all soul and no talent. That’s why he got the midnight slot on a Tuesday. Charlie wonders how the hell this place stays open. He never sees his boss anymore and wonders if the world simply forgot about shutting this place down. He keeps the keys in his back pocket, opposite his wallet. They never fall out cos he wears the tightest jeans he can find at the shop down the street from his apartment. They’re cheap jeans, inexpensive, but they do a hell of a job holding onto keys and gum and chapstick and lighters.
The waitress smiles a fake smile at Charlie, and he reciprocates. They’re secretly in love, but neither of them will ever admit it. They’ve become too jaded from too many years in this club. They’ve seen too many relationships start, flourish, and end at every table. The tables hold the stains and sweat from these relationships, and they’re both reminded every time they wipe them down at the end of the night.