A salute to:
Old City Bar
By:
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
There may not be anything that any of you have taken to heart because of what you've seen or had to do, but I once saw this man, and what he did in sheer kindness.
There was a bar that I myself went to quite often to gather with old friends and relax in the quiet candlelight. There was always soft music playing that maybe all the men merry, but there was no merciless partying, just the soft mumble and heart full laughter with old friends. And that neon sign that hung above the door was always very welcoming to anyone who saw it in the safety of night. It was never far from the places where people gather would gather.
It was a night I'll never forget, Christmas Eve, and a new layer of snow had just been lain down right before nightfall. The snow still hadn't stopped and it lulled us all. The neon light would beckon all into the pub, even strangers, maybe even people that shouldn't be trusted. This is what made this night more dangerous than most. But this night of all nights made more people believe in miracles than any other.
Yet one day there was something that changed everyone that was in there that day. The doors of the silent pub opened with the little ring of the bell that signaled the entire mass of a new comer. This was usual, after a while, the soft mummers started to arise. Every man in the bar began to turn his head to look at the door, and there stood a boy that no one had seen there. And to see a boy in a bar alone was still way too strange for any of these men. Hey silently and disjointedly walked to the bartender, looking very afraid. Hey was speaking straight to us all, standing in the middle pub.
"Do any of you see the girl out there standing alone, lost, and unable to get home?" he asked timidly. The bartender just happened to overhear this little boy from where he so solemnly stood, almost like and angel. He looked out the window to look for the girl the little boy spoke of. After staring around the glares made by the streetlight he was focusing near, he found the girl standing on the corner outside of the bar across the street, standing next to the broken payphone. She stood there looking back and forward, but never moving, wearing a brown jacket with puffs of fur coming out of the sleeves and neck of her coat. She wore high boots and she clutched a book, intent on never loosing it. The bartender himself seemed to be the only one in the bar that was going to speak.
"Not that I care, but how would you know this?" he began, "have you asked her?"
"No sir, but I've noticed... if one could be home, then they'd be already there."
I couldn't see his face from where I sat, but I knew that what the child had said struck the bartender deeply. I saw him walk over to the cash register and he tried to hide it, but everyone noticed him do it. He took all of the cash out of the resister drawer then he did something unexpected. He stepped out from behind the bar, more than anyone there had ever seen him go.
"Please son, follow me, we'll talk to her together," the bartender said and walked across the street to the little girl. When she saw him coming towards her, she shook her head in surprise. I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but when he got to her, they began to converse. After a few moments, the man pushed him protectively behind her and stuck his them out into the road. In not ten seconds a taxi stopped for him and he pulled the girl to face him, but looked like he was placing something in her hand. She stepped into the taxi and he shut the door. As the taxi was leaving we heard him shout "JFK" and she disappeared into the darkness. The only light that was shining on the street came from the lamppost, and star in the sky, the brightest and only star in the sky. The one the girl had been wishing upon.
We all watched him as he turned around and we noticed the money was no longer in his hand. He stood there looking down; smiling like we'd never seen him do in the time we've known him. His head suddenly came up and looked left and right. The child that had led him to the little girl had disappeared and was nowhere to be found. All there was, was the blowing snow like waltzing dreams in the air.
It's been said that: "If you want to arrange it, this world, you can change it. If we could some how make this Christmas day last, By helping a neighbor, or even a stranger, to know who needs help, you need only just ask.
Everyone who has been told this story from someone in the bar has been called a crazy drunk. They say that it was just a neighborhood kid who walked in on some bums in the world where they hid.
All I know is that after the bartender returned to the bar, he was much different than he had been before he'd gone with the child. He made no man pay for a drink for the rest of the night, and losing a profit so large was not like him, and we did not take advantage of his kindness.
And in case you should wonder, or just in case you should care. Why we men on out own... never went home. On that night of all nights, Christmas Eve... we were already there...