| 
Three things: 1. There's a long, claustrophobic underground passageway that I use to get from the Port Authority to the midtown 2/3 connection on the way to work. I call it the Hallelujah Tunnel, as there are crazies who are perpetually stationed there, hurling cliches and their militant contempt at everyone they see, as if their task is not to convert people to Christ, but to purge their inner demons onto the passersby. Once, I actually heard one Halleluja Crazy improvise his sermon - on the spot - to directly and individually address a scantily clad girl walking by him as "hoochie devil." Very nice. 2. In the same underground passageway, there are two regulars that make me think about them. One is an accordionist, about 4' 9". He strategically arranges the dollar bills and coins in his donation box as if pruning through a bonzai tree. He'd hardly be noticeable if he weren't actually very good. As a matter of fact, he is excellent. I once heard him swinging from a Godfather theme song into a full, tango-tilted run of Piazzola, and I said stop it, you dazzling motherfucker. Just stop it. The other is a very old Chinese lady who sits in a corner, passively panhandling. She just sits there, and people give a little. I never realized how frail and small she was until today; I believe she was evicted from her usual post by a crazy. I was walking behind her, and she looked more like a withered comma than a person. (Old people look so sad from behind.) In her right hand was what little she made from begging. In her left hand was an aqua-green plastic pedestal she was using as her chair. On top of the chair was the cushion of her seat: a frayed piece of bubble-wrap. 3. Two Japanese girls literally jumped into the train. They sat side by side, tiny unto themselves. Both had bushy hair, impossibly skinny legs, biggish cheekbones. The strange thing is, all throughout the ride, they stuck their hands in the pockets of their hoodies, had their eyes closed, but weren't sleeping. I could tell they weren't sleepy at all because they were chewing their gum, v-e-r-y sl-o-o-wly, for the entire duration of the ride. Couldn't help but be mesmerized by their strangeness. Did they drop some ecstasy pills (but at 9 AM???) I wanted to live inside their minds for fifteen minutes; I bet you that if I could somehow slip from one girl's consciousness to another, it would be like walking into a deja vu. |
