At The Tick Tock, Again

I saw CNN had taken over the Tick Tock diner on the corner for the duration of the Convention ...

... adding its own electric red to the green and blue neon and chrome of the Tick Tock itself and the faded Deco glory of the New Yorker hotel it was part of. The two Tick Tocks were superimposed in my mind: two separate but identical gateways to an imaginary, timeless Perfect Diner.

Bricks of Light

Dulled glass bricks were set into the floor of the pavilion, suggesting there was a chamber below, though I could see no steps down to it ...

... Protestors were swirling around the pavilion, but for the moment none entered. I was alone, at the still point of the turning world.

Burning Snake

I found the edge of one of the patterns, pushing protestors gently aside as I moved, staring intently at the ground and not at their faces. I wheeled to the right and then to the left, back upon myself, towards the park and back again … I realized I was walking a labyrinth, a painted spiralling snake in green and yellow and red.

Time Flies, Again

I looked south at the strange steam-emitting sundial artwork on the square’s bottom side, occupying the full wall of a building above the Virgin Megastore. A set of digital numbers flashed in a sequence I’d never been able to fathom.

The Compass Rose

Look Down at your Feet

“Welcome to Dead Man’s Curve,” Terri said. “Right where you’re standing.”
“Hell of a name.”
“Hell of a game. It’s where the cable cars coming up Broadway used to crash or send people flying as they tried to negotiate the bend. There was no way to decelerate. Sound familiar?” 

40°44'06.37"N, 73°59'29.83"W

Pyramids at Union

As I emerged onto 14^th Street, at the bottom of Union Square Park, three pyramids appeared on my right, floating on the horizon. I walked towards them ... Off in the distance, I could hear drums in the still air, chanting and whistles and shouts.

Goodnight Moon

40°44'03.31"N, 74°00'25.91"W

Defiance

I crossed the street to the triangular plaque in the street outside Village Cigars, commemorating the refusal of a former owner of the site to sell 500 square inches of his property to the city authorities...

Chess Table at Washington Square Park

“Tables for chess and checkers only. No loitering,” a sign said. “Two hour limit per table. Free for public use. No gambling or fees.”

... I sat and loitered, waiting for the next call. I knew what I had to do. It was time to take control.

The Hangmen's Elm

I inspected the Hangmen’s Elm. Only a tiny green plaque on its trunk identified it.

... I stepped over the low railings onto the grass to look more closely. Explored around the roots.

Triangle Fire

... the awful sound of women screaming, falling through the air, some hand in hand, like the poor people who jumped from the Twin Towers, and smashing into the pavement on Greene Street ... Young women trapped behind locked and blocked doors on the top floors as the flames tore through the factory, driving them to the windows. An inferno at their backs. Leaping to their deaths. I could feel it. I could see it. The pain was unbearable. The street resonated with violence.
40°43'47.32"N, 73°59'43.34"W

The Bell of Doom

The bolts meant something to me too. Indefinable images rushed at me. I placed my hands on the bell, closing my eyes, hearing again the chanting in my dream. Fat Mary Fat Mary Fat Mary …

... I couldn’t. I willed the images away, and with them the fear.

Emmet's Vault

Emmet’s vault was a stone slab in the paved churchyard. The image of an empty chamber beneath an obelisk teased at my mind...

An Amiable Child, Again

"They Were Earth's Purest... Children Young and Fair.

The Hare Krishna Tree

I found a plaque on the fence nearby. It was an American Elm. Ulmus americana... On October 9, 1966, it said, AC Bhakhtivedanta Swami Prabhupada and his followers sat beneath the tree and held the first outdoor chanting session outside of India of Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare…

Chess Table at Tompkins Square Park

Someone settled into the seat behind me.
“Don’t turn round, Robert,” a man’s voice said. “It’s time for us to talk.”
“Adam?”
“Just don’t turn round.”
“What the hell?” 

“This is a place of great holiness and great loss, you know? Terrible sadness. Lots of homeless people, lots of desperation, lots of lost faith, lost hope. Then there’s some joy, too. Dancing and singing. If you know where to look.”

40°43'34.00"N, 73°58'59.10"W

Red Square

As soon as I had a fix on the waypoint I half ran along Essex Street...

... There was a giant clock face on the side of an apartment building as I approached Houston. All the numbers were screwed up: 12, 4, 9, 6… I looked again. They were still screwed up.

What The Second Cache Said To me

Today was the trial by water. Find God in the sea of sex. I have never felt so fully known, so fully electrified, so fully comfortable with another human being. Having her utterly in my power. Being utterly in her power. But my sexual desire cannot be for Terri. It has to be for Katherine. I have to fold it back toward her.

The Treacherous Path

"You want to know what kind of path you're on, Robert...?"