Page 35 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 3 #4
P. 35
So, as JD and I wondered down Houston from “What is it?” said JD.
near Lafayette, we were still debating whether
or not we would go to the Village to see Mo- “It says store closing.”
hammed, our friend who owns a jewelry store
we have frequented for close to fifteen years. “What?”
I was dragging my foot after me and at nearly
8:30 at nyght I had already been standing or I dragged my foot down the stairs and into the
walking for more than fourteen hours. While I shop. “Mohammed, what's going on?”
had switched to my more traditional footwear,
hiking boots, and there was more room in the “Hello, Falcon.” A man with bright eyes and
shoe, the damage to the toe was extreme. My a confident, warm smile, he seemed cold and
sock was wet again. distant. His beard was suddenly almost white
and his body was thin. He face was gaunt and
“Look,” I said to JD, “we can turn around and lined.
head back to Marge's. Just say the word.”
“What's wrong, my friend?”
“I don't know, man.”
He shrugged.
Well, as you can imagine, that isn't something
you should say to me. Not in general and cer- I cross the small store until I reached him. I
tainly not when I am in New York. extended my hand and he took it. There was
no life in his grasp.
“I am asking you what you want to do. If you
don't decide, you know what will happen.” “Are you OK, my brother?”
He more or less responded. The kind of re- He turned his eyes down. “I have suffered a
sponse that says “yeah, I get it, I guess.” When tragedy in my life.”
JD does that, it is carte blanche for me and I
usually lock in on the target and move aggres- “What has happened, my friend?” I was still
sively forward. That couldn't happen tonyght holding his hand.
given the fate that I just couldn't drag my foot
faster. “My son. He is dead. He was twenty.”
“Right at the next light,” I said. The decision “Oh my, what happened?”
had been made. We crossed Bleeker, Well I
dodged a car while JD waited on the corner for “He was driving.........”
traffic to clear. I was in so much pain I wasn't
thinking clearly so we ended up wandering It wasn't long ago, a year or two, Mohammed
through every side street in the Village until we and I had had our first real conversation. We
found Silver City on McDougall Street. Silver sat, side by side, elbows on knees, drinking cof-
City is down about five stairs in what should fee. “So, my brother, tell me about your fami-
have been a basement. ly.....” He did. Openly. This son, the one who
had just died in a car accident about which he
“What the fuck.” would share no details, was his problem child.
“I don not know what is wrong with him,” Mo-
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