New York Time



I still don't know how Johnny got up the money for our plane tickets, but before I knew it we were circling La Guardia.  This was my first trip into New York City, and my first time on a plane.  I almost missed the relative safety and peace of my father's car as we taxied to a stop.

 

Johnny had paid for our tickets - both of them.  I hadn't bothered to ask how he'd gotten the money.  I did offer to pay for my share - and he refused me.  I knew if I asked about his funds, he would shrug and reply "Saved it".  I wondered how long he'd been 'saving it'  - if it had in fact come from his salary - but I was too excited to care about that.  We would be starting a new life - a daring life - one beyond the requirements of my parent's approval.  I'd have my own place, and my first try at living with a man.  Which was a pretty daring prospect back in '64 - which is why Lisa had to lie about Billy to my parents.

 

I didn't want to ask too many questions - I was actually fighting my own curiosity to best enjoy my new situation.  This was New York, the big time -  I could make a huge difference with someone here.  I nearly left my luggage behind, wanting to go into a new life with as little baggage from the last as possible. 

 

"Are we walking?" I asked Johnny as he handed me one of my suitcases  from the baggage return. 

 

"No, I've got enough bread for a cab."

 

"Johnny, how can you afford all of this?" I worried.  "Won't you let me pay for..."

 

"Johnny Castle don't live off of anyone's charity - even the charity of someone he loves." 

 

"I'm not going to let you pay for the cab."

 

He frowned at me - but the frown gradually developed into a smile.  "Shoulda known you wouldn't take this lying down."

 

I laughed.  "I wonder if I can remember how to stop a cab..." We walked together out to the curb.  When we were there and I saw a taxi approaching, I let out a piercing whistle. 

 

The taxi came to a dead stop.

 

"Knew you'd be useful," he teased me. 

 

 

***

 

New York was nearly overwhelming to me - so many people bunched into such a small stretch of land.  I was excited and scared at once - my stomach fluttered violently as our cab crawled up Eighth Avenue and through the constant traffic jam clogging the street.

 

Johnny tapped me on the shoulder, pointing over the driver's shoulder and up the street.  "Our place is just up the street."

 

I opened up my purse, taking out a five dollar bill, which sounded like a reasonable amount of money.  When the driver pulled over and stopped the cab, he turned around and said to me, "ten bucks."

 

Ten dollars for a five-mile cab ride?  I gave Johnny a helpless look, not knowing what the going rate in New York might be for cabs.

 

"Pay him.  You don't want to argue with a cabbie in New York City."

 

I nodded, fishing out two five-dollar bills and placing them in the man's red-stained, calloused hands.  He gave me a crooked smile and tilted his cap toward me.  "Welcome to New York, ma'am."

 

I smiled back, then opened up the side door and exited the cab.  I took one of my suitcases, and Johnny handed me the other.  "Was that right?" I whispered, as the cab crawled away and we walked toward the building in the opposite direction.

 

"I think that guy gave you a discount.  I've been charged twice that for half the distance."

 

"My God...Charging that much money when people are starving on the streets...they ought to be ashamed..."

 

"It's the way a big city runs itself, Baby."  He walked up the steps of a dull brownstone with red pansies brownstone.  He spread out his arms.  "We're here."

 

"It looks nice," I said, taking in the faded surroundings.  The entire block hinted of past glories - of a vibrant life back when it was built in the twenties.  Forty years later the world was crumbling into poverty.  I didn't care about the forbidding mood surrounding me - anything wrong could be improved.  Anything felt possible.    "Let's go inside."

 

He nodded, opening the door and allowing me in.  "Billy said the apartment’s on the fourth floor.  Apartment Four-A."

 

"All right."  We headed upstairs.  "Do we have our own bedroom?"

 

"From what Billy told me, we'll get our own blankets."

 

"Blankets?  Don't they have a couch?"

 

"Baby, you've been spoiled for too long.  They probably don't have a table to eat off of.  You knew we were gonna have to make sacrifices, Baby."

 

I was insulted - clearly he still thought I was the same girl he had met in the Catskills.  "I knew that.  Hey, I made sacrifices of my own!  Plenty of them!"  But when we opened the door and looked into Billy and Lisa's apartment, what I had imagined simply could not compare to reality.

 

The apartment was threadbare - two brown chairs sat in the middle of the space, the backs buckling in toward the middle and rusty.  Suitcases were stacked in a far corner, closed tight, and nearer to the door sat a plastic garbage pail overflowing with takeout containers.  Behind the chairs, in front of two windows covered with orange roll-down shades lay a green sleeping bag.  I remembered Lisa's wanting to take it when she moved out of mom and dad's place.  The room is bathed in an ugly, orange light, bringing up the rusty gloom that the cheap, threadbare rugs they had purchased could not cover.

 

"What do you think?" he asked.

 

"It's home," I replied.  But I had no faith in my own answer. 


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