Blackbird (ON HOLD)

"An Old Guitar Is All He Can Afford"

September, 1986 - NYC

The petite, brunette woman opened her eyes to a sunny, warm day in New York City. She turned off her alarm clock and quickly got up to get dressed. It was 7.30 a.m. And work began in an our, so she hurried and wore a shirt and a plain skirt as fast as she could. Her heart was beating so fast as she sat on the table in the kitchen to eat a bowl of cereal. It was her first day at work, in the building of the United Nations. After she graduated as a very successful student, she had found herself trying to decide what she wanted to do with her life.

She had a lot of dreams, pretty different from each other. She literally wanted to live in totally different universes at the same time. She wanted to form a rock n' roll band, but she also wanted to save the world. One part of her wanted a lively life, full of adventure; but the other part of her wanted a calm life, silent and peaceful. One part of her wanted to be recognized, to get attention, to be known by millions and to be remembered for centuries. But the other part of her wanted to be completely apart from the society, to spend her life quietly without even letting anyone know that she exists.

She quickly grabbed her jacket and bag and got out of her apartment. A man, probably her colleague, that she had been sending letters to had offered to pick her up from her apartment at 8. She couldn't turn down his polite offer, and just hoped that he was actually as nice as she thought he was, since she hadn't met him in person yet. His name was Collin. Collin Linwood.

The sunshine immediately fell onto her as she stepped outside, and she decided to wait under the shadow of the building in order to prevent herself from sweating in her formal outfit. Tons of cars passed by as she waited, but no Collin. She looked at her watch and saw that it was already 8 o'clock. After waiting for a few more minutes, she decided to sit down, onto the pavement and listen to the noise the cars were making. Five more minutes passed, but Collin was still nowhere in sight. She started to think that he was never going to come, or worse, Collin didn't really exist at all. He sounded really trustworthy in the letters, but still, she hadn't met him in person after all.

Just then, she heard a quite familiar melody, coming from a guitar. She immediately turned her head to see the source of the melody. That was when she saw the long haired man with dirty and ripped up clothes, sitting on the pavement, his back against the building, and strumming his acoustic guitar. There was a cowboy hat on the floor which only had a few coins in it. She couldn't help but stand up and move closer to him. He was really talented, for sure. He was effortlessly playing that wonderful classic by Dire Straits; Sultans of Swing.

Music was a big part of her life. Actually, it used to be her whole life for a long time, before she started focusing on her career. She had been playing piano since she was 9. She even went to a music school in her country, Turkey, for a few years when she was 12, in order to be a musician. Then, she decided that she didn't want to be a virtuoso. She wanted to be a rockstar. So, she changed her school to a regular middle school. Actually, it wasn't really regular. It was one of the best schools in her country, and it was really expensive. But she managed to get a full scholarship and became one of the most successful students in her school.

She grew up in Turkey, her parents were Turkish, she was Turkish. But now, she was able to speak English as if it was her native language. She left Turkey when she was 18, and moved to Europe with her parents in order to go to college. And then, she came to America. It had only been a month since she came, but she didn't feel like a stranger at all.

"You like Dire Straits?" the man spoke with a soft voice, after stopping playing. She looked at him. He had blond, wavy hair which was almost at the same length with her own hair. His eyes were greyish blue, and he probably hadn't been shaving for a few weeks. He was about her age, and probably homeless. "Yeah." she answered quickly when she realized that she had been staring at him for so long. He was definitely good looking.