Song-Story

Link to a Youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AOp9c5DRzc&p=07E8ADEA93310A91&playnext=1&index=10

If I Ever Leave This World Alive
The drum beat matched the blood pounding in my head as I sat ensconced in a dark stained wooden bench at an Irish pub. It is Katie’s birthday and seven of us from our study abroad college in London had traveled to Dublin, desperate to find the perfect travel companions. No one is paying attention to Katie. The “cool” boys from New Jersey are heaving their attentions all over Betsy and Georgia while they artificially protest. This is ridiculous, I think, Katie should have a night of pure unadulterated attention on her big day. I race to get drinks and promiscuously lean over the bar hoping to gain the attention of the mobbed bartender. He wanders over to take my order after a few others, clearly lured in by my innocence and assets. I order the two most frilly and expensive drinks with an umbrella that contain either Baileys or Jameson, after all, we are in Dublin. Back at the table it took all of my powers of volume to reign in the attention of our “companions” in order to give a measly toast in Katie’s honor.

”I can’t believe you are leaving for London in a few weeks,” cried Kara, “You are going to go traipsing all over the country and completely forget me.”
“I would never! Besides, you are going to write me an email everyday so I won’t be able to forget you even if I tried desperately.”
“We need something else to remind us of each other,” Kara informed me.

Katie and I huddle together talking about the faerie land we had just inhabited. We had taken a bus out to the Irish countryside and ended up at an old monastery. The old stone building that were now missing roofs and the long-forgotten gravestones lured us in, but what really stuck in our minds were the trees. The trees were giants and covered in a grey-green moss that could only possibly exist in Ireland. It was where the faeries dwelled and as we sipped our headache inducing sugary drinks we could still feel the faerie enchantment floating around us like dust as it catches the golden light. Irish step-dancers alighted on the stage pulling my attention away from this afternoon and our oblivious companions. Their steps were mesmerizing. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, their light feet slammed down onto the hard wooden stage. A new song picked up and it pricked my ears, If I ever leave this world alive I'll come back down and sit beside your feet tonight, sang the quintessential Irish band. The audience slammed their hands together, filled with excitement over the popular song. The noise pounded through me and I became overwrought with the need to twirl and swirl about to the song as I was filled with the memory of only a month ago.

“We need a song” I finally decided, “something to conjure up the others image.”
“I know just the song,” Kara proclaimed.
The song blasted out of her laptop speakers and Kara began to swivel her hips to the beat. I got up and joined in with her dancing, giggling like the school girls we still partially were. As we stumbled and twirled around my dorm room we sang the lyrics at the top of our lungs, sure to ostracize me from their company, but I didn’t care. I was leaving.
If I ever leave this world alive, I'll come back down and sit beside your feet tonight, Wherever I am you'll always be, More than just a memory.