Lower Manhattan

Boom goes the thunderclap!  The sky above Soho is green, and the strange color casts a glow on everybody rushing for cover.  Lightning strikes again, and another boom echoes up and down Broadway Ave.

When the streets are all emptied out and I am alone under a green sky on Broadway Ave, I realize what it is about New York City, and then my cell phone rings, and it’s Jane, who’s been browsing in a store.

We are about a block apart.  We agree to meet under the awning of an apartment building.  When we meet up and duck under the awning, a hailstorm, then a downpour, ensues.  Nobody else is stuck outside except for us and a man selling umbrellas across the sidewalk, under cover of his van and patio umbrella.  He looks at us, bears a shiny metal grin, picks up an umbrella, and offers to sell it to us.

Jane adores New York, and for the last six months not a day has gone by that she hasn’t offered another idea of what we might do and see, hear and observe in our two days here in Manhattan.  A few months ago, I started counting her ideas.  Gus’ Pickles! she might say one day.  They specialize in pickles!  And I’ll say, One thousand three hundred and forty-seven.

Maybe it was by One Thousand Four Hundred and Sixty Four that we agreed to have no plans at all, to just go walking through the big city with all the lights and shadows.

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