Where the Streets Have No Name

(Bear with me, this is a long story but worth reading, believe me)
Sometimes, life plays little tricks on you. A night begins. You think it'll be just like any other night and then suddenly it takes a wild turn and life unfolds before your eyes. A single choice quickly leads you into a new direction and if you're lucky it's a good direction, the kind that smacks reality into you and you're grateful for being alive and hopeful that good people still really exist. U2 put it perfectly, to go where the streets have no name, where you feel sunlight on your face, where you reach out and touch the flame.

Last Friday was one of those nights. I was invited to a party. It began with that, a friend of a friend told me I should come and I did. The party was for a guy who was moving back to Germany and who apparently I had met before. It was a great suprise to see him again and to bid him goodbye. After the house party, they were going to continue on to a discotheque which I agreed to go to with my roommate Jordi and my friend Courtney. The night was going fantastic. We danced and danced and for a few hours I felt young, you know that foolish freedom you get from dancing on the dance floor to your favorite songs with your hands in the air and your eyes closed.
SCENE 1: The night was ending, Courtney comes up to me, extremely upset, telling me that someone has stolen her phone, but in her hand she has a cellphone. I ask her whose cellphone that is and she tells me she found it where her cellphone should've been. I felt bad for her, but didn't know what to do, so with that foolish freedom I was feeling, I continued dancing. She told me she was going home and I wished her good luck.
SCENE 2: The German wanted to continue the night and I tell him sure, I'll go too...foolish foolish freedom. I go to grab my jacket which I had carelessly left on a couch with my phone, wallet and keys. And of course, the jacket, THE leather jacket I had wanted so badly in the middle of summer, was missing. I was shocked. I had never had anything stolen from me before. All I could think was of all the numbers I had in my phone that I might never get back, the bank card with my small but essential savings, my id, my privacy, my leather jacket!
SCENE 3: Courtney comes back into the picture, apparently never having left. I explain to her what just happened and she brilliantly tells me to call my phone with the newfound phone in her hands. I do and someone picks up. He says he has my jacket, which he found on the street and which he will immediately take back for me. I meet him at the door and he hands me the jacket and phone. I search the pockets and find to my dismay that my wallet and keys are gone. My heart drops and I look him straight in the eyes and ask him if he was the one that took it. He swears he didn't and I could search him if I wanted to. I tell him it's not necessary, there was nothing else to do, but take his word for it. I put on my jacket and decide to go home. The night should've ended hours ago. Jordi comes out and suddenly Courtney is talking to the guy who has her phone on the borrowed phone she found. They seem to be having communication problems and I tell Jordi to get on the phone with him to work things out. After half an hour of promising the stranger we don't think he's a robber or bad guy, we agree to meet him the next day to get the phone back and to buy him a beer in appreciation.
SCENE 4: I'm freezing, but oddly calm about having my stuff taken. Grateful that Courtney would get her phone back and that I had my leather jacket. Suddenly, the other phone starts ringing. Jordi talks yet again to another freaked out stranger. He had lost his phone at the club. He had left the club with a friend who had drank too much and had gotten into a horrible car accident. They were both okay, in the hospital, but okay and he of course needed his phone since he didn't have his mother and girlfriend's phone memorized (how do you not know your mother's number???) Jordi agrees to take it to him. I tell him he's crazy and he reminds me that both Courtney and I had gotten our stuff back and it was our duty as citizens of the world to give this guy his phone. We bid Courtney goodbye and make our long way to the hospital. We get lost. But we manage to eat pudding and laugh our heads off at the events that just won't end.
SCENE 5: We finally get to the hospital after the poor guy has called 4 times asking where we are at. Did I mention his ringtone was Madonna and it's driving me crazy? What is up with these ringtones??? We find him at the entrance of Emergency with his x-rays in hand and tears in his eyes. He tells us his story and I remind him that at least he's alive. In the end we are all still alive. He invites us to come and eat at his house some day and hands us 40euros. Jordi and I refuse, but he gives it to us anyways. Jordi gives me 20 and says that at least I get the money back that I had lost. As we are walking back to the car, the guy looks at Jordi and matter of factly tells him: "I know you. I slept with your ex-girlfriend." Jordi and I laugh, jordi guesses the girl correctly and I can't believe that this night still hasn't ended. The guy reminds us that we'll have to come and eat at his house and we say, "sure buddy".
SCENE 6: we of course get lost in the hospital, spend half an hour going in circles through restricted areas until someone shows us the way out.
SCENE 7: I get home and call the bank immediately. Cancel my cards, put an alert on any accounts I might have pending, and call my mom. For some reason, mom always saves the day. She tells me she'll keep an eye out for my things and adds that they have finally given my daddy the date he will get operated (He has heart problems). In an instant, my world crashes and i realize that I would be willing to get my entire life stolen as long my dad made it through this. I hang up, silent, watching the sunrise and finally go to bed. All I want is to sleep and feel sunlight on my face.
SCENE 8: (I told you this was long) My mother calls the next day and tells me, "Heidi, you aren't going to believe this. I just got a call from a girl in Barcelona, studying, who's from Texas and she found your wallet with everything in it, money, cards, id, everything. Call her immediately." I do and she promises to return it to me as soon as possible. She tells me she found it on the street and I realize I wasn't robbed, somebody had foolishly mistaken my jacket for theirs, realized it wasn't theirs and left it on the street. Foolish foolish foolish freedom...
SCENE 9: We go to meet the guy who has Courtney's phone and he doesn't show up. But he finally meets up with Courtney the next day and she gets her phone back.
SCENE 10: I don't get my wallet back until Monday but it's okay. I'm alive. The guy from Germany calls me back in hopes that I got my stuff back and that I am okay. We wish the best of luck to each other and laugh at the madness of the night.

And then you piece all of this together and what do you get? A world, a few human beings, strangers with no names, that still take the time to pick up someone's belongings, to give them back, to stop for a few seconds and think in the good of others. So I can't help but think that there are still some really good people in this world, who expect nothing other than a thank you. And so I'm asking you to help me pick up some pieces...on February 9th please stop for a moment and send my daddy some good energy, he needs all he can get for that little ticker of his and in return I will supply you with a lifetime thank you.