This one took place at the Mesquite club in Palm Springs, California.
This was a wild party. The bride and groom were relatively young, and so were most of their guests. The band was playing hot Rock tunes and almost everybody were dancing.
Well, almost everybody.
At the corner of the room, near the buffet table, there was a middle-aged man standing, with 3 kids with him. He didn’t seem interested in the music or dancing what so ever. In fact, he seemed very annoyed to see every one is having a great time. He just hated the music too. The man looked as if he was only interested in the food.
He tried to catch our look, and when he did, he signaled to us to lower the music. He didn’t bother to come to us. He was too far, so he just used a body language. The man wasn’t nice about it; he was even a little insulting. Most of the guests were complimenting, he was different. He didn’t care about celebrating, it seemed, he just wanted to eat and run. Why would anybody bring 3 young kids to a wedding party, where everyone was much older?.
The kids seemed pretty tired and bored, almost as if they were forced to come to the wedding. Maybe it was one of their young uncles who they never met before, getting married?.
The man with the 3 kids was standing near the buffet and waiting. The buffet was not ready yet, so he looked even unhappier.
From the very start when he first showed up he look at the band with an angry expression and use impolite body language to tell the band to stop the music.
Later on, his requests became more and more aggressive. We got really annoyed with him. How selfish, we thought, everyone is having a great time dancing but this one person wanted the music to stop just so he can feel more comfortable.
As much as things got hotter on the dance floor, the more that this person became more aggressive. We used body language to show him that we can’t stop the music just for him, while everybody else is dancing. We pointed at the dance floor. The bride and groom were dancing in the middle of the dance floor, while everyone was cheering around them.
The father of the bride, Allen, was still a young man. He was divorced, good looking, and appeared to be one of those "big shots" in town. He had a young girl friend dancing with him.
The Mother of the groom was single too. She was still very pretty and seems a little shy. While, Allen, the father of the bride was very dominant at the party, she was relatively quite and felt like she was just one of the guests.
My mind was working extra hard. I really couldn’t stop the music, just so one person can eat in peace.
Eat in peace? The food wasn’t even served yet. So why is this guy so angry? Is he that hungry?
There was a point were I didn’t want to look toward him anymore, because I didn’t want to give him the opportunity to bother me.
He must have realized that too, because he started coming closer to the stage and demand, almost threatening, to stop the music.
I let the next two threats pass bye, but at the third time he came, I had enough.
We stopped the music in a very dramatic way. I went down the stage, feeling very angry I approached the father of the bride. He seemed very surprised to see me walking toward him so rapidly.
"Allen", I said, "there is one of your guests who is driving me crazy". "He is very impolite, and he keep asking me to lower the volume or stop the music, while everyone else is having such a great time."
"First of all" said Allen, "no one should tell you what to do", "I’m the one who is paying you, and I actually want you to play even louder". The father of the bride looked around him. Some of the guests started gathering near by. He liked the commotion. "Please raise the volume a little more for me, I’m in the mood" he said.
After few seconds he asked me "who is this guy, anyway?"
"The man in corner, near the buffet, with the 3 kids" I said, hopping not to cause too much troubles.
Allen looked a little surprised. He looked and he looked as if he can’t believe what he sees. "Who is this man" he almost shouted. "Does anyone here know this man?"
He turned around him, but no one seem to know the man with the three kids.
"This is not my guest" shouted Allen.
Things started to get hot. Almost everyone came around the father of the bride to find out what is the commotion all about.
The father of the bride started to walk toward the unknown guest that had the "Chutzpah" to invited three more little one to crash the party.
The stranger looked pretty uncomfortable. He looked at me first with a helpless look. I felt really bad for him. If I knew he was un invited, I wouldn’t say anything.
"May I ask you who you are?" says the father of the bride.
"Well," says the stranger, "I was walking outside with my children when I heard the music, so I just thought I’ll come in and eat something"
Some of the guests including the bride’s father, Allen, just couldn’t believe it.
"Do you realize that this is a privet party?" Allen asked the man!
"No," said the stranger in a very short answer and started to walk toward the stairs, leading outside, ready to leave.
Allen looked too shocked to be able to think what to do next. He was looking for words as for what to say next to the weird stranger. One of the three kids broke the silent, turned to his father and asked him: "Aren’t we going to eat? Daddy"
This was un expected, there was a silent in the air that you could cut with a knife. I could swore that I saw some tears falling on some guest’s faces. It felt like there was dynamite ready to explode.
Everyone turned to the father of the bride to see what he would do.
Allen was a good person. I knew him several years before, when I played for his 2 sons Bar Mitzvahs.
He swallowed his saliva, trying to make the right move and then he said: "I’m not going to let you and your little kids go home hungry, you can stay here and eat".
Then, he smiled to the stranger and said, "but would you, in the name of God, stop complaining about the music and let us have fun?"
The stranger returned a half smile, for the first time, and all the guests clapped their hand, cheering and praising the goodness of the father of the bride.
I looked at the band members, they looked very amused. I think they knew what I was thinking. We got ourselves into a soap opera? I said, "Lets play".
Before I went back to the stage, I came closer to the stranger, and asked him why he wanted us so much to stop the music.
"As long as the guests were dancing," he said, "the food wasn’t being served, and I was hungry", then he continued "Now you can play"
We played:” Strangers In The Night"...
Epilogue:
It actually turned to be a great party, and the guest had more excitement than they bargained for. Needless to say that this stranger stole the show, we almost forgot it was a wedding.
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