Miss Golightly: part 5

We stood there in the street in the middle of Manhattan at 2am in the pouring rain.
Mark was pleading with me not to go, and I was trying to hail a cab.
A homeless dude in a wheel chair who I'd given a couple of dollars to earlier that evening in return for a surprisingly moving, (if a little drunk,) acapela rendition of moon river, came over to check if I was ok..."Hey fella, you best not be messin' with ma sista y' hear. I got her back. m'kay?"
He scowled at Mark before turning to me and asking earnestly "you cool Woo, you cool? 'this guy bothering you?"
"I'm cool Joe, thanks for asking" I took my umbrella out of my bag and gave it to him, he took it, opened it and looked up with a grin, he kissed my hand before wheeling himself off down the street shouting as he went 'Like I told you fella, don't you be messin' with ma sista! I got her back y'hear!'
We were wet though, Mark was obviously a little shaken up, I felt sorry for him.
'Look, this is your neighbour hood, where can I get a pint?
We walked to a little Irish bar about a block away and I ordered two pints of beer.
For the first time that evening I paid the bill.
Mark opened up a little then and I won't go in to his personal life here but suffice to say I was right on the money about the British heart breaker.
This man was hurt and once he admitted it he wasn't so bad, he apologised for his behaviour and told me that I'd impressed him, he thanked me for listening to him and he offered help and advise if and when I was ever in a position to move to New York.
We have stayed in touch and he's actually a nice guy deep down, I'll visit him next time I'm in town.
There are important lessons here people...
1.don't be afraid to be honest with people, putting on a front can get you in to all sorts of trouble, people can generally sense when someone is not being genuine, communicating honestly with people if often difficult but usually rewarding...
2.you shouldn't always judge on first impressions, or take to heart peoples first impressions of you, if you have inner confidence and you are honest with yourself you can learn from constructive criticism and dismiss unnecessary nasty comments without a second thought...
3.It's never to late to change someones mind including your own, you just have to be open to it.
It was dawn by the time I finally got in a cab, Mark gave me fifty dollars to pay for it, (which was 3 times what it cost) I imagined myself as Audrey Hepburn in breakfast at Tiffany's for a moment, (before I realised the connotations and tried in vain to give the money back...)
I slept late and read a little the next day, I was reading an autobiography 'Dior by Dior', after reading about his experiences in New York City, filled with admiration and awe, I took a long shower in the small dingy bathroom and afterwards dressed in a bright floral tshirt dress, high heeled biker boots and a black leather jacket....I needed to be ready to go out, I had a friend coming to visit from London and I had a feeling he'd be wanting to go straight to the pub.

To Be Continued...