Day 14 of my 2023 drabble-a-day challenge! Here is today’s drabble:
I Know You’re Out There Somewhere
I'm running late, taking stairs two at a time and legging it through Soho. I'm giving my name on the door, and heading down the dark stairs. I'm grabbing a beer and chatting to strangers.
The stage lights come on, blood red and white; hooded figures and inverted neon crucifixes as the guitarist smashes across the stage.
And I want to reach that eighteen year old, sitting at home listening to pirated Pixies tapes and reading Gibson, crushed by an oppressive relationship and hopelessly dreaming of a future she can't articulate.
And I want to tell her: you'll get there.
This evening, I’ve been down in the red-and-black, history-soaked atmosphere of the 100 Club, listening to The Frank & Walters (or, as my friend Landmine insists on styling them, The Frankenwalters).
This story isn’t about that gig. It’s about a gig some years ago, when St Agnes played the Borderline. And I suddenly realised I had turned into everything that my teenage self longed to be.