Martini Bar Early Nightcap

[Mana Aizawa]

There it was, another attack, another threat and all Mana had done was to hide.  Since arriving in NYC, Mana had begun to feel real despair.  Life was NOT worth living was a mantra that had begun to drone inside Mana's head.  

 

Digging through dumpsters was no way to live.  Sleeping in a closet on the hard floor was no way to live.  Wearing the same dirty clothes day after day was no way to live.  Now, Mana regretted not having stood side-by-side with Jo, that brave woman who seemingly was going to face down those thugs all by herself.  Mana now felt a deep shame and a sense of being worthless.  She would have actually almost preferred having died rather than to be who she was now--someone without friends, without a job and without a home, even. 

 

And MEN!  How was it that just the one time Mana had given in to her curiosity about a man she ends up cowering under a table?  All her dreams to find that ONE man who would sweep her off her feet, who would make her feel actually SAFE.  It was a dream and just that, nothing more.   Did others find those perfect men?  Mana was sure they did.  So why was Mana getting downright OLD and still without a real "boyfriend?"  
 

 

Was it now safe to climb from under this table?  And how had Mana left the one kind person in the world, a stranger named Jo, to stay outside and face down thugs, men with guns, all alone?  What a coward Mana was.  

 

The motorcycle guy was gone.  Mana sighed both a sigh of "good riddance" and a sigh of "oh, he was so handsome and so out-of-reach."  

 

Mana stood, cast a glance at several customers who were now looking at the door--why they were looking that way she didn't really know.  Well, at least they weren't looking at her.  

 

Mana remembered her resolution--to get out of this place and go back to the Kimono House and relative safety.  Mana decided to avoid any chances of again meeting the motorcycle man, of again facing thugs and of again even facing Jo.  She found her way to the back door and escaped into the night.     

 

(Does Mana die as she steps out that back door?  Was there still one final thug with a gun covering that exit?  Do NYC residents believe in reincarnation?  Will Mana's soul return in some new form [some new character]?)