Apocalyptic visions shattered the night, as a siren wailed its warning out into the ghetto. I was running through the dank night air, through lost alleyways in an urban maze. I was running, but asked myself,” Why run when there's no place to go?" I ran out of pointless fear, because fate is inevitable. Flames leapt out from the buildings like angry tongues lashing through the night. I stopped, exhausted, and noticed an old man in a crumpled raincoat, sipping a bottle of whisky. He looked at me as though he could see the darkness within and offered me a drink. And I realized that the abyss was yawning before me.
     I woke in a cold sweat and heard a siren wailing into the great ghetto night of America. Then as the siren faded, I could hear softly from the next room cool gushing jazz beating its eternal rhythm to the soul of man. I should state here that, I'm not alienated cynic, ranting eternal complaints to worry mongering goblins. I'm just another world weary soul with a story to tell.
     Velvet tones of Miles Davis seeped into the room, as I splashed cold water on my tepid face. I, hot with the desire of youth, dashed out of the room into the one o'clock morning darkness, wending my way between forlorn dilapidated houses. I hitched a ride to the French Quarter. At last I was on Bourbon Street.
     There before me, in this junkie paradise was heaven, Jazz Heaven. This down on his luck hipster had found the grooviest joint around, a bar with wine, women, and jazz. The music was the smoothest, dreamiest, beat that my ears sore from factory work had heard in ages. The neon sign outside said,” Jazz Heaven," and I knew I had arrived.
     Inside it was dark and smoky. There was a saxophonist in a silver sequined black suit which sparkled like champagne. There I bought some happiness in the form of tequila. It's true money can buy happiness but we pay for it in the end.
     Then a grizzled haggard old dude walked up and said,” Just the guy I was looking for. You look like a big strong fellow; drinks on the house. What you say we talk about your future?" Not being one to turn down a free drink, I accepted his offer. That night he hired me as a bouncer. He introduced me to his daughter. She was a sweet gone looking chick staring out at me with a pair of ocean blue eyes. I imagined getting lost in that ocean. The old man went in the back.
     The daughter smiled and blew me a kiss. The old daddy  with black night shades kept pumping away at the sax, with a fury and passion but flowing like the Mississippi River, ebony, sublime, and soulful.
    I finished my tequila. Then I began to notice the old man's daughter looking at me and giggling. I suspected she was giggling about my disheveled appearance, but then I had a suspicious nature, bordering on paranoia.
     I noticed she had red hair and a cute little mole on her face. I had a weakness for redheads. She stopped giggling and said,” You look lonely. You need company?"
     I replied,” Why not?" and paid the bar tender. We went down Royal Street and entered a courtyard where a really live party was going on. In the courtyard there was a fountain and a banana plant whose leaves danced restlessly like flamencos in the subtropical breeze. I lay back in a reclining chair chilling blissfully. The daughter offered me a daiquiri which I took. Then we all played naked in the fountain. After that my memory got fuzzy.
     I woke up cold and terribly hung over. The daughter was no where in sight. So I got up and looked for her, tripping over the many bodies lying out on the stone floor. I finally found her wrapped in a blanket like an enchilada. She looked up at me with her angel eyes and smiled beatifically.
     She sat up yawning and said,” Good morning or is it afternoon?"
     I said,” Beats me".
     She sat up combing her hair and said,” My names Darlene. What's yours?"
     I said, ” Gerard".
     She began humming and said,” I’d like to have dinner with you."
     As she slipped into her floral panties she said,” I don't believe in commitment. It's against human nature."
     I dug this for a second and sat down by the fountain putting on my shoes. I said,"Hey, I can dig that. We can just play it by ear. When it stops being fun, it stops."
     She made a wide eyed grin and said,” That sounds cool."
     We slowly drove back to Jazz Heaven, waving at people and yelling,"Hi", and making outrageous faces and having a ball. The good citizens of New Orleans probably wondered what institution we had escaped from. One guy tail gating us began honking his horn and shook his fist out the window. Darlene smiled her beatific smile at him and flashed a peace sign. He flipped the bird at her.
     When we got back the old man was standing in the doorway, smoking a cigar. He bellowed,” Where you two been?"
     She said,” I spent the night with Doris. She was lonely and wanted company."
     I said,” I walked her over to her friend’s house last night. She didn't feel safe walking alone."
     The old man grumbled,"O.K. now you ready to work tonight?"
     I spent the day helping Darlene's old man clean up around the place. Darlene went grocery shopping. While she was gone her old man came up to me. I stopped sweeping the floor and joined him at the bar. The old man put his hand on my shoulder and said,” Son, don't take offense, but I don't take kindly to the help sleeping with my daughter. I'm sure you're a good worker. She's been through the ringer with men. Last time she came home with a black eye crying. It broke my heart." The old man patted me on the back. He said,” I just want us to start off on the right foot. I want you to give me your solemn oath not to touch her."
     I said,” You have my word, on my honor as a gentleman."
     That night two tough cookies with biceps tattooed with hearts pierced with arrows with blood dripping came in. They began pawing Darlene and then began dragging her out of the place. The old man was no where around. I took a pool stick and held it menacingly over their heads telling them to get out.
     One took my pool stick and broke it over his knee. Then he picked me up off the floor and held me against the wall, laughing like a maniac. Darlene jumped on his back and the other one pulled her off, throwing her across the bar and into a table. The old man arrived and fired his revolver into the ceiling. The two guerillas fled the scene. The ole man sat at the bar and said,” Take her home." I walked with Darlene back to her place through the foggy alleys of the quarter. When we got to her bedroom, she fell into the bed. She begged me,” Please stay with me tonight. I don't feel secure."
     I sat on the edge of the bed and said,” All right".
     Darlene stretched like a cat on the mattress as I gazed at her supple form visible through her denim mini skirt and translucent blouse. She said,” You were a real hero tonight."
     I replied,"Aw it was nothing."
     She winked up at me and said,” You deserve a reward."
     I looked at myself in her mirror and said,"Naw, that's O.K.".
     Darlene laid her hand on my thigh and said,” You chivalrous types really turn me on."
     I looked down at her and said,” Maybe I should go in the other room."
     The sense of her nakedness under the semi-transparent blouse aroused me far more than her naked romp in the fountain. Darlene stood up, unzipped her skirt and tossed it onto the floor. She unbuttoned her blouse in slow seduction, turning around slowly to reveal her supple body, bathed in sepia lamp luster. She knelt at my feet, running her fingers through my hair. I stood up, backing away from her. She followed, on hands and knees, grabbing my calf. "What's the matter? She said. You don't want me?"
     I said,” Now Darlene, you're a beautiful girl, but I wouldn't feel right at work with your father if we did it. It would cause me no end of guilt."
     Darlene said,"Aw you're no fun. Can you at least stay with me tonight?"
     I said,” Sure I'll sleep on the sofa." We wound up spending a chaste night together.
     As the first rays of sunlight through the window brushed my face, her father walked in. He saw me lying on the sofa. He proceeded to the bedroom where from the sofa I could see Darlene laying naked. He jerked me off the sofa huffing and puffing about me having defiled his poor sweet flower. He yelled,” Listen you punk. If I see your face around my place again, I'll kill you!"
     I got myself out of there fast, and hopped at freight headed to California. I was wondering what this poor soul had done to deserve such a fate. I picked up a scrap of newspaper from the boxcar floor which read,” Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."
     I looked forward to the scene in Frisco with relish as the train passed through the night. The train slowed as we inched past a railroad crossing while I was nodding off. I gazed, in hypnotic reverie, through the open door at the red warning lights flashing. The train picked up speed roaring through the night country. In my dazed stupor I fell fast asleep to the rumbling of the wheels.