Such Is Life In The Naked City

Been at Glam Doll since a quarter to 10.  Thought they were celebrating their five-year anniversary, replete with a make-your-own-donut bar and a burlesque dancer, but that's the other place, the one closer to home.  Whoops.

I've taken the time to catch up on my receipts when I see fire trucks and police cars drive up to the restaurant across the street.  Just before this I notice a girl talking into a phone in desperation.  I go back to my receipts, but then I hear: "Excuse me ..." and then this same girl sits down in the chair across from me, almost knocking over my laptop in the process.

She then gets into this spiel I don't quite understand.  She needs to use either my phone or my computer to contact her mom and dad, but she doesn't know either's phone number.  She then says that she's been locked in the basement (presumably in the restaurant across the street) and she complains that no one is helping her.

I hated what I was compelled to say to her.  I think other people would tell her to buzz off.  But -- and I could be totally naive here -- I think there might be so truth to what she's saying.  I don't know about the mom and dad and trying to contact them even though she doesn't know their phone numbers stuff.  But I have heard cases of people being locked up against their will, and a few times I have heard this, it's been in restaurants.  This could be my paranoia running away with my senses, but I could -- could -- believe she just got out of a locked basement and needs somebody's help.

However, against my self-regard as a nice Minnesotan, what I thought is what I said: "I'm sorry, I don't know how to help you."  My BS detector was just pinging off the hook too much and too loudly to help her, even though I couldn't quite understand how I could help her.  A tear had rolled down her eye, but after I turned her away, she got up and went back to the seat she was in when she made that call.  I lost track of her, only seeing her again through the Glam Doll windows.  She came back out through the restaurant when the cops finally came.  She was speaking to them, and I lost interest.

As of right now I see the flashing blues of the only fire truck and police car still on the scene.  I hope I can make it out to my car without incident.

And to think it's simple and easy living in Minneapolis!