The Dirty Mile was, indeed, not as dirty as the name would indicate.
As a matter of fact, on this very evening, Lilly had done a way better job of cleaning the place than she ever had before. But this was not just any regular day on the bar. And this was not just any regular bar.
Most days The Dirty Mile was just a bar. People of all types and ages would come in - drunkards, rock and rollers, aritsts, teenagers on fridays unwinding after a long week, and so on. There was literally not a type of person Lilly had not seen come in this bar. Well, almost literally. Because Lilly was blind. But she was one of the best workers the bar had ever had.
But as mentioned, it was not always just a bar. It was also a music venue, every friday headlining the most recent up-and-coming bands. The bar contacted the bands themselves and asked them to play there, which was a big honor, because many of the bands that had been asked to play there had later blown up and become world-famous.
This evening was like many others, but then again not. Because today the headline was a very special band.
They had become more or less locally famous for playing smaller venus than The Dirty Mile, but people were certainly in disagreement on whether the music was good or not. Some said that they were a collection of talented and artistical people. Others said they were a bunch of crazy, arrogant assholes.
The band was called "It's Not Supposed To Be Perfect". Five times any teenage girls dream as far as looks were concerned. Dressing as a Tokyo Fashion Magazine, they were certainly used to enter the stage with their instruments in their hands, making even some of the most dry girls wet.
Hanako was not as disabled as Lilly was. At least not physically. The burn-scars covering nearly the entire right side of her body were not as unstable anymore as they had been years earlier when she got them. That fateful night when her house burned down and killed both of her parents, leaving her as an orphan.
But mentally she was worse off than most people. She was the most shy girl that most everyone who had met her had ever known.
A combination of her mental condition and the scars were the reason she ended up on the same school for disabled children as Lilly did. But even here she was so self-conscious about her looks that she was hardly making any friends, always hiding her right side behind clothes and long hair.
Lilly was blind and they were neighbours on the school ground, so they quickly became friends. Since then, Lilly had always taken care of Hanako. When they had finished school, it was only natural that wherever Lilly went, so would Hanako, and that was how they ended up working at The Dirty Mile.
Despite peoples' argument whether It's Not Supposed To Be Perfect were amazing or just downright batshit, The Dirty Mile was full of people. The regulars were sitting at their regular tables, while the new faces were moving up front to the stage. There must have been approximately 200 people there that night. Way more people than the bar usually had.
Lilly was humming as she cleaned the counters in front of the people. She could not see them standing there, looking at her, and neither could she see what she was cleaning, but she had gotten a good feeling of where she was and how clean the spot was in her fingers.
In the back, Hanako was just finishing stacking the last of the boxes of alcohol. She was happy to know that she could be important to the business without having to talk to too many strangers or having anybody looking at her.
Lilly went in the back to see Hanako.
"Are you done?" she asked.
"Pretty much," Hanako gave a quick nod.
"Good." Lilly smiled heart-warmingly. "Take a break. The band is going on-stage."
Hanako enjoyed music a lot. If she could not see herself in the lyrics, she found it fascinating how close she felt to the musicians as they sang their heart and stories out.
Hanako made sure her hair covered the right side of her face and her sleeve covered the scars on her arms. Then she went out in to the bar to find the most isolated spot she could, even though noone would probably notice her when a band of this caliber was playing anyway.
People started cheering as the drummer went on stage with his arms raised in the air. He started fist-pumping.
"I! N! S! T! B! P!" people cheered rhythmically as his fist punched holes in the air. He sat down and started playing some cheesy rhythm on his drums as the bassist came in and joined the jam-session. The guitarists went on and people went crazy. Only one person to go. When Johnny World came on stage, people went hysterical.
Johnny threw his arms out to the side to signal "silence" and the band stopped playing as all the lights went out.
"One, two..." he whispered. "ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!"
The rhythm guitarist jumped up in the air with his legs split and they all started jumping around and playing. And the audience went crazy. Hanako was just silently observing them as the song went on.
"Another lonely night, another star that shines alone,
Lost in space, so sick and tired of looking for a home,
And you're an astronaut that visits me as I need it most,
I've seen it all before, please promise not to be another ghost,
And I will promise not to let the sun go down on you,
But if I can't remember that the sunset is a beautiful view"
"Hanako!"
Hanako shook. She looked over her shoulder to see her boss signalling for her to come to the bar.
She went over there.
"Hanako, the bar is full and we're all very busy. You need to help us out."
Hanako was dead scared at the thought of having to communicate with so many strangers, but she was too shy to say no and she also liked her boss and Lilly way too much, so she just silently went behind the counter, expecting the worst to come as the night would have to go on...