Day 14

Today plodded along. More rain. Fall’s coming fast. Once again, compliments on acoustics, but after nearly three hours I had ten bucks in the bag. I’m feeling tired, not sure why, the whole not working thing can get you into a lazy mood. At one point this couple that looked they had just walked out of a Manhattan lawyers office…Italian, Spanish guy and Vietnamese woman? She was grabbing onto his arms facing him and he was pushing her away. I figured they were just horse playing, but when she turned around her face was read and drenched in tears. She was hysterical. The struggled continued through the length of the tunnel.

Over by the stairs the man yells, “That’s it! We’re through! You’re gone!”

She screams, “No!”

Then they were gone. I could still hear them somewhere atop the stairs. Then the man reappeared. Then the woman was back. Screaming, crying, more grappling. It reminded me a lot of how an ex-girlfiend I lived with for three years was when we split up. They were memories I really didn’t feel like re-experiencing so I tried to think of any songs I knew with make-up lyrics in hopes that it might lighten the somber mood. After an hour they walked back to my side of the tunnel. They had their hands around one another. The man glanced at me with a somewhat embarrassing expression and then they disappeared into the crowds. I called it quits shortly after.

I found a tree over by Wollman Rink. A fella' I see quite often in this area peddling random wares for the tourists approached me. I’d say he’s fifty something, and though not dressed badly, I can tell he’s homeless. First time I walked by him he said, “You all right brother? Need a map?” I’ve seen him out in the rain, a garbage bag for a coat, trying to make a buck. The tourists aren’t paying him much mind so he comes up to me. He’s got a sleeping bag with him along with a stuffed backpack. Tells me he’s staying temporarily with his sisters, a single mother in a project in Harlem.

“Too loud there. You know who it be too. Them young girls. All screaming, carrying on at three in the morning. Couple of them all right looking, but they ain’t all that. They always leaving their bottles out in the front too. Cops be coming over now. I’m tired man. Real tired.”

“And they be having them construction workers right outside the window all the time. You know those platforms that window guys use. These guys be putting something in the bricks to make the rain water run off better. Always outside the window like they could just walk right in the room. Can’t even smoke a joint or nothing. The ladies be loving it though. You know they love to tease. It’s true. Walking around all naked, especially the woman below, she fine too, oh man, she got these laborers hanging out there all day, some of them don’t do nothing. I seen their checks though. Thousand bucks a week. I be lucky if I make five hundred in two weeks.”

I get curious as to how he makes this much money, but I don’t ask.

“That’s good work. I need a new game.”

“I was staying with this other guy. He does a coke and all that, don’t care, but he one of them types, think he’s all better than everyone else, ain’t no use for that, plus he tells me I can’t have no woman over at the place. Fuck that! I say, what, I just going to stare at you all day? No way. You got to be able to have a lady over. It’s cold, but shit, I’d rather sleep in the park.”

I pass out, using my guitar for a pillow. When I wake up it’s dark, the park’s relatively empty, and an old Asian lady is sleeping right next to me.