(John Doe) Mysterious Intentions

There’s this café I do music gigs at.

It’s not the ideal place to do small shows, but it's the best I have right now. The café itself isn’t too bad either. There's always something happening and it gets my creative juices flowing.

Unfortunately I chose to go down the music career path. Let’s just say I didn’t believe the whole “starving artist” stereotype, and now, I live this stereotype. Funny how that works.

I learned how to play bass at age 4, and I’ve been playing ever since. I can also play piano, drums, saxophone, and I can sing pretty well. If it wasn’t obvious, I play (mostly) jazz music. I really don’t understand the whole “pop” thing, and don’t even get me started on alternative music. I shudder just thinking about it.

Honestly though, I’m not too worried about my life. I know my skills are good enough to make it big, and it should only be a year until I’m discovered by some huge music company.

However, I am a little bit concerned about the current state of the industry. Yesterday I decided to stay at the café after one of my gigs. There was a poster in the window about some DJ show happening at 8 pm, and I wanted to see the other musicians that played in the café. They were almost like a family to me; other starving artists that worked at the same joint. I’d understand how they feel!

This guy, though… He’s definitely not family.

If I had to claim him, he’d be the black sheep of my café musician family. Apparently his name is “Disk Jockey McDizzle” (a stupid name if you ask me), and all he did was press some buttons. Apparently the loud, annoying noise that came out of his speaker is called techno music. Personally, I don’t understand how it can even be considered music! It feels like an insult to me, honestly. I spent my entire life mastering the art of bass, piano, drums, saxophone and singing, and some fool pressing buttons is considered a musician. The worst part about it, everyone loved him! I don’t understand society nowadays. I decided then and there that I’d have to show society real music through my shows.

I went back to the café to cleanse my mind after that insult of a "show". I needed to sit inside and hear the peaceful jazz instead of the stupid techno “music.”

Luckily my regular seat was empty today. I sat down in the far right corner and pulled out my notebook. I took detailed notes of what was going on in the café in hopes that I would be hit with some musical inspiration.

Nothing was out of the ordinary today.

The boring guy at the counter was still taking orders, some girl was crying with her face buried behind her textbooks, some guy had his face behind a laptop screen, the weird bald man in the backroom seemed to be staring at me... Yeah, this was pretty normal. This atmosphere was just too mellow to spark a masterpiece. Well, I couldn't expect much on a slow Monday afternoon. I took out headphones and started to play some soothing jazz. The music in the café was drowned out by the white noise of the busy café.

I closed my eyes and almost started to doze off when the door rang with a new person entering. It was probably another regular but I decided to open my eyes just in case. I was really desperate for notes.

Luck seemed to be on my side. This new customer was definitely.... something.

A tall man walked in and stopped in the very middle of the café. He was dressed in a dark robe and multiple crosses were worn on his neck. He held a book adorned with gold embellishments and what I’m assuming was a small vial of holy water. He stood there for a while without moving, long enough to get the attention of the people in the café. His eyes shifted rapidly around the room, it almost seemed like he was waiting for something. He suddenly raised his hands as if telling everyone to stop, and closed his eyes.

The guy with headphones in took a moment to look up from his screen.

If people weren’t staring before, they definitely were staring now.

The tall man briefly opened his eyes and noticed the stares.

“I am assessing the situation.” His eyes closed once more.

I furiously wrote down more notes.

Tall, searching, feeling, claimed he was “addressing the situation,” almost longing for something. Maybe someone?

The man opened his eyes and pointed at the boring man at the counter. Wait, no, he’s pointing at the empty space beside the boring man. The boring man looked terrified and slowly retreated towards the back room, but the tall man kept pointing in the same direction. What was going on?

Pointing at man? Beside man? Schizophrenic?  I scrawled in my notes.

The man’s eyes grew wide and his face hardened. “I will be back to expel you once and for all.” he said firmly as if announcing it, before promptly turning around and leaving the café in a hurry.

“I will be back to expel you once and for all.”  I copied down. Mysterious, strict, knows what he wants, but no one else knows. Has goals and looks like he can achieve them. Angry but not really. Kinda hot.

Holy shit! This is perfect material for a new song! Maybe a whole new album!

His hard gaze, his open-phrases, his mysterious intentions… Wait… That is perfect for an album title! Mysterious intentions!

I grabbed my notes and ran out of the café. I needed to get to the studio asap!