Friday Nights

{Photo by Amber Hewitt}

I thought my life was going pretty good, but then the events between 11pm and 3am happened on Friday night/ Saturday morning.
After leaving work at my usual 9pm dismissal, I quickly drove to the gas station, and then took the long way home with the window rolled down just enough to let in the smell of the coming rain. Once home, I quickly showered, did my hair, and dressed for what I thought would just be a couple hours of coffee.
A couple hours of coffee later, I was in the passenger seat of a friends car, singing Destiny's Child. Twenty minutes later, we were running around a deserted park, and swayed on some swings, until the coffee started to come back up from it's resting place.
Fifteen minutes later, I was tripping him in Meijer, and he was complaining that out of 30 checkout isles, only 3 were open. I had to mention that I thought even 3 was a bit excessive, considering it was two in the morning, and the only other people in the store were a couple small black families and a woman, who I later noticed was actually a man.
By 2:30, we decided to go to Detroit, and quickly decided to turn around when the rain started pelting down on the windshield. The mistake we made, was the exit we got off at to turn around. The surrounding neighborhood was slightly sketchy, so of course, instead of turning directly around my friend chose to turn into the neighborhood. Six deer were there to greet us, right off the service drive.
About 15 minutes later, we found our way back to the service drive, and my friend says, "We're going on that bridge." Thinking he meant the bridge we were about to drive over, I laughed and sighed, "Duh."
I didn't understand why he would tell me such a silly thing, that was until he parked at the corner of a street that held a closed party store and a crack house or two. We both got out of the car, locked it, and ran in the rain to the overpass, that overlooked 96. I had never been on one before, and wasn't expecting much, but I was proved wrong.
Pushing my forehead against the fence and looking down as cars passed directly beneath us, is one thing I know I will remember for months and hopefully years to come. It was amazing, because even though we were two white kids in Detroit and almost 3am, I felt in no danger whatsoever. (Let's face it, Detroit or not, being out at 3am poses some safety issues).
My friend and I had good talks, and ran back to his car, soaking wet from the ever falling rain. And as he merged onto the express way, he hit the gas and said, "Detroit is the undiscovered great city."
I laughed and replied, "No, it's more of a broken down beauty."

Broken down beauty
I have pride in you
Broken down beauty
I’ve roamed your dark streets
Broken down beauty
I’ve seen your glory
Broken down beauty
I’ve seen your demise
Broken down beauty
I was going to leave
Broken down beauty
I won’t even try
Broken down beauty
I have too much faith
Broke down beauty
I stand by your side
Broken down beauty
I know you’ll take stride