The House of Blue Light

~littlejohn

Let me tell you a bit about how I got my account here. I know most of you don't *really* care but this is a pub, right? It's what people *do* in pubs, they talk about things that either don't matter at all, or matter a lot.

So m15o wrote me a while back about one of my projects, and he told me about this place. Naturally, I had to check it out. Lots of people probably checked it out and didn't make an account though so here's the story about why I decided I'd do otherwise.

There's a place in my home town, a pub, decorated in colours that are sort of like midnight.pub's dark colour scheme. It reminded me of that place. That place is special to me.

I was in high school when I first went there. Obviously, I couldn't legally drink alcohol at the time, but that didn't stop me. It's a place tucked behind a bunch of large, impersonal apartment buildings, behind a parking lot -- I bet most people didn't even know there was a pub back there. The police never showed up unless somebody called them, and who was gonna call the police? Everyone knew everyone there.

At first, I went there with my high school friends. It was the only place in town where they played blues. My friends didn't really like blues. Then it turned out they didn't really like me, either, but I liked the place, so I kept going.

Then I went to university. That place was on my way home from classes and I stopped there pretty often. I rarely had more than two beers. The bartender liked me. I always sat at the far table, the one right next to the TV, which nobody wanted, because it was too bright and there was barely enough room for two people to sit. I didn't have that many friends so it was rarely a problem. I never got drunk, never puked in the bathroom, never got into fights.

Some of my exes know the place. We'd go there pretty often. I never broke up with anyone there, though. I didn't want to ruin it, I guess. On late weekend nights, when everyone except the regulars had gone home, the owner would lock up the place and offer us cigars and thick smoke would fill the room within minutes. And then I'd go out in the crisp air of winter mornings and fill my chest with cold air and it felt like I was breathing in a new world and a new life.

It was my little corner of bliss. When I felt squeezed out of my own home, and I often did, I'd go for a walk and I'd usually end up there, and I could see the blue light coming through the bar's windows, so I nicknamed it The House of Blue Light. I'd look at the flickering blue lights on the cold, dark concrete, and my heart would open and a little light would come through, enough to last me for another day.

Sometimes I'd dream of this place, in a way. I dreamed that it was high in a tree, a thick, old tree with roots as big as a house and branches as thick as a bull's torso, its trunk so thick they'd carved little winding roads into it. And I climbed it and found my way there, and someone was always there to greet me.

I moved and now I don't get to go there too often. I see it once a year, at best. And now with this whole Covid-19 thing I haven't seen it in about two years, if not more. But I'm very fond of that place and I carry it in my heart, and this place reminds me of it.

So, yeah, that's why I'm here. Thanks for the registration key, m15o!