Journey in Philadelphia on a Saturday Night

Photo Courtesy of Camarilla

It was late.

Me and my girlfriend left the club around 1:15 AM. Any chance of her coming back with me was gone, and since we both rely on public transit, the night was going to be a long one for both of us. My phone was as good as dead, so the warm embrace of Megadeth and Overkill weren't going to get me through the long and lonely ride home. My girlfriend was dressed to the nigh of goth club fashion, calling out for discrete attention from a mad gone world, as was I. After spending a ton of time getting dressed and ready, it was all destroyed within 4 hours at a club in Spring Garden while enjoying live music from techno bands on a warm and humid spring night. My 6-inch mohawk was down to nubs, while she looked as good as ever.

The show was great. She got to hear the lamination's of  a band from Australia gone insane on stage, while the guitarist attempted to undress me with both her hands and a come-hither look that said, "Are you ready for this?" We both wound up having a great time. The night was filled with kisses and loud music, a club filled with people wanting to both be seen and unseen, and the air was filled with light smoke and loud music.

After we left, we were stranded on Market Street waiting for a bus. I didn't want to leave her alone on a bench at a bus stop, especially since all the street lights were out around City Hall. It was weird seeing 13th Street in near total darkness, while the only thing illuminating the massive monolith of power is a lone spotlight on the highest archway with stone figures peering over a weary city. A shuttle bus passed our stop with fever as it was filled to the brim with lost souls trying to get home themselves. We were left to wait on a bench with a few random strangers while we stewed in our strangeness.

Wearing mid-calf black leather boots with red stitching and leggings, my girlfriend sat next to a man dressed in a pseudo-military outfit that looked like a cross between 1941 and 2012, and a hair style that looked like it went through the ringer. Together we were quite the odd couple to see at what was now 2 in the morning. After waiting a bit more, her bus finally arrived. We gave each other a loving embrace and a kiss, and she soon boarded the bus without me to head home for the night and sleep.

There's something that's always pissed me off; old guys who leer at young women. You know what I mean; The old guy, who most likely hasn't seen action since when Regan was in office, thinking in vain that he has a chance with any woman who walks the street, as if time had no effect on their otherwise repulsiveness. Trust me, I'm not one to dismiss fantasy or ideals. These guys... they leer like crazy, and in the most obvious way possible. Like staring at the back end of a Ferrari means' you have any chance of getting it.

As she and another woman boarded the bus, one of those old guys was standing at the front of the bus. The usual reaction happened, but this time... this time it went on more than usual. So I made the guy aware I was looking at him. He had the driver stop the bus. As he walked towards the door, I followed suit and awaited the doors to open. "What'd you say?", the old fart asked in a shocked tone. "I was saying keep your eyes up here and stop leering at women, especially my girlfriend." The guy walked away, so did I, and the bus pulled off. For me, it was the start of a long journey back to my house in Mt. Airy as I walked around City Hall to catch the Broad Street Night Owl.

Meanwhile, on the bus, the old man started mumbling about his now hurt pride. As my girl tells it, he was muttering around saying, "Girlfriend... man... I'd take his girlfriend. Over-protecting asshole! Need to show him.... " My girl is tough at nails, and has a sense of humor that sometimes puzzles me and also fills me with delight. Her reaction to all of this? "HA! Right! Like that was going to happen!" As she chuckled to herself, the entire bus looked at her, and back to the old man who was now silent.

The bus ride was otherwise uneventful for myself. I got to Broad and Olney around 3AM. It was vacant, damp from the rain that fell 3 hours earlier, with a few people shouting for a chance for a ride home in exchange for cash or drugs. I spotted someone who I thought was giving me an eyeballing, and I decided to confront him. "Hey, do you know what time the next bus is?" He did a big dramatic gesture and looked at his watch. "Should be here in 15 - 20 minutes." "Cool, thanks."

I walked into a 24 hour Dunkin' Donuts and grabbed a double-chocolate donut. The place was filled with both the vermin of the area and good folks just trying to get home. I put some newspaper on a bench to keep it dry and I took a seat. I was soon joined by a few others, and we made small talk to kill the time. An old white homeless man on crutches came by asking for cigarettes or change, and I politely told him I had neither.

Soon, more people came to sit on the bench. The conversation was light, the folks seemed good, and while it was obvious one was drunk, another had a good heart. The homeless man returned, asking again for cigarettes and change. "You're a white man in America, and you have more chances to make it than I will as a black man!", yelled a man who took off his headphones. The other people on the bench agreed with him, much to my disgust and even personal disgrace. Its amazing to have come so far in existence to reach that sort of point where that sort of parallel is used. In a country that has proven anything is possible and the limits of your success are only up to use, that lazy and terrible excuse to not give a man on the edge nothing... I was disgusted at myself for not speaking out louder at this.

"Man, he could be anything he wants! He's too lazy to do anything else!", remarked the woman next to me. As he walked sadly away, she continued, "He could run for president and they'd STILL vote for him!" "Well, " I interrupted, "So could any of us. Anyone can run for president and win. Didn't we learn anything from Obama? Isn't that the best thing about this country?" There was a brief silence, and then another comment on the guy being lazy.

"Today's Easter, isn't it?", I asked her. "Why yes, it is. I can't wait to get home and see my kids!" "Well, it's good to know that Jesus died for our sins, isn't it?" She agreed, and I walked away from my disgust of it all.

A few minutes later, I walked to the guy from earlier who gave me the weird stare and we talked for a bit. Turns out he worked security at University of Penn and was doing a double-shift which mean double-overtime. I applauded him and went back to Dunkin' Donuts for some orange juice. That's when I saw the homeless man again, sipping on a coffee. "I'm sorry about what happened out there. In fact, I'm embarrassed." With a weariness that only comes from years of hard work and grief, he said, "I was only asking them for a cigarette, I wasn't expecting that." I noticed he had a recent tag from a hospital, and it turned out he went in for a check-up. I offered to get him a donut, and he politely declined.

I hopped on the bus and went home. It was a long and interesting night by the time I got home around 4AM. I got in, plugged in my phone, and got a text from my girl saying she was already home. I was soon in dreamland with her.