The Birdcage was a cafe...... or maybe a shop........ or maybe even a concert hall. I haven't decided yet. Maybe it was all three.
Imaging this. You are walking through a streets with hardly any lights and it is night. Everything is uninteresting and I am bored. You don't look back, but you don't look forward either, you look at your well used converses on your feet, to ensure that you don't trip over any obstacles or rubbish that life may have put in your way. Now and then you may look to the side, just out of whimsy, and there you see a distant city. It is glowing from the streetlights, and for a moment you are a little taken a back. But then you frown, how stupid, that light is completely out of your reach; and besides, if you were to get close it would be an ordinary street lamp. So you continue.
If you haven't noticed already, this is a metaphor of my life.
That is, until I passed the Birdcage one night.
I'm not to sure what made me look at it. A call of fate maybe? If I believed in that stupidity.
When I entered I was actually rather curious. What was it? It had a counter which served cakes, tea and minted water (I'm not too sure I like that... mint in water) in one corner. Clothes hung from walls and ceilings, looking like they were for sale, but you weren't really meant to buy them. A small staging area was at one end of the room, with instruments lined up and a microphone ready for action. Surrounding the stage was loads of vintage sofas and arm chairs, old ones that mis-matched.
The people were of a variety of ages and there were probably an equal amount of males and females. Did anybody really have anything in common, I wondered.
I suppose it was that all of them were smiling.
They were all a family. I could see it all. Everybody referred to each other by there first name, they asked about personal stuff such as children and parents, they all sent each other christmas cards.... no I bet they all met up for Christmas and had a party, maybe even a secret Santa, and even though they were all so different, everybody had gotten the perfect gift, they all laughed and sang, maybe sometimes they would sing karaoke, what did it matter you couldn't sing? Every man, dog and his beast accepted you here because........ well because.
They were all a family.
A family that I suddenly want to be a part of.
That was it, there was no turning back. The sun had risen on my dark street. Everything and everyone was beautiful and curious, something I wanted to be a part of, something I needed to be a part of. Several emotions suddenly switch on, loneliness, happiness, sadness.... love. A want, to be accepted into their paradise. Oh I hope they accept me, I look down at my clothes, how dull they are! Nobody would accept me here....
No, they would accept me. I'm sure of that.
So what I did was this, I brought a cake, poured myself some minted water (and hated it), sat down and did something outrageous.
I talked.
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