julian would stand on the cornernunderneath the bradbury hotel lightsnwishing he was four floors up asleepnsafely hidden from the dark and endless nightnhe used to be some kind of businessmannhad a wifentwo kidsnand a dog named joenwent to partiesndrank and laughed it upnnever bothered to watch the dice he'd rolenfive years he has lived in an empty worldnhis wife is deadnand his kids they all moved awaynno one knows what exactly happened to himnso sometimes he gets down on his knees to praynnif you can hear mentake me away from herencause i'm no longer the mannthat i want to benthere's no more room for the pastnand that's all i haveni try to talknbut the future won't listen to menndiane worked at an all night coffee shopnon the corner of brabury and twenty-ninthnfrom time to time she'd watch julian from the windownand wonder to herselfnif he would be alrightnshe lived alonenin a one room apartementnshe didn't know anyonenand hardly went outsidenconvinced like juliannthat she toonhad become a ghostnwhen you're in a dark placenwhere there isn't anywhere to hidensomeone once told hernthat she didn't have anything to givenand when she was youngnshe believed every word they'd saynuntil she conviced herselfnthat she would start againnsometimes she still gets on her knees to praynnif you can hear mentake me away from herencause i'm no longer the personni thought i'd benthere is no reasonnfor me to go on like thisni try and cry outnbut no one will listen to mennit was dark that nightndarker than most i guessnhe was at the windownthinking he would sit down to restnhe looked upnand his eyes went across the streetnand to their surprisenthose empty eyes encountered menjulian couldn't movenor more like he didn't want tondiane felt the samenand she didn't know what to donain't it funnynbut ain't it a cryin shamenwhen you've got no one elsento blameni turned my collar upnand started to walk down the streetnand behind me i heard the silent soundnof weathered feetni turned aroundnto watch the walk back toward the cafenit's kind of funnynbut sometimes we get on our knees to praynnif you can hear mentake them away from herenand make themnsomething they long to bendon't turn a deaf earnto anyone that you might hearnor am i just talkingncause no one will listen to menno one will listennwhy won't you listen