I opened my mouth to ask if maybe there was someone else here when I stopped. All I had was the address the angel gave me, this address and as near as I could tell, his sister wasn’t here. I stopped, expecting him to spit a loogie at me but he swallowed it and asked what I wanted. He made a noise, that disgusting wet sucking noise someone makes when they suck snot from their nose and down their throat. As I got closer his nostrils flared and he grimaced. Not even the darker side of the new me seemed interested. Seriously, people from NYC who may be reading: how can so much stuff exist in one place?!Ī balding man wearing too small glasses stared at me as I made my way past shelves and tables stocked with an assortment of stuff I was certain I’d never need or want. I began to feel overwhelmed because everything in this city seemed to thrive on being excessive. Inside the pawnshop was even more clutter. I gave her an extra $20 and an apology before I got out. She quoted my fair and I scrambled to dig the bills out of my backpack. I blinked a couple of times before I realized we had stopped and looked at the driver. The taxi stopped in front of a pawn shop. Home for me was not even a quarter the size of what I saw, not in terms of how many and how different all the people were or even in the sheer amount of everything packed into what seemed like too small a space. We drove for a bit, with me in a daze as I stared out the window. I got in, told her where I needed to go and away we went. She saw me staring, snapped her fingers and asked in a thick accent if I was gettin’ in or what. I hate sounding like one of those people but I’d never really seen anyone look so… well… I guess like that. She had earrings sticking out of multiple places in her face, ears and even neck. Her hair was short, spiked and dyed green, pink and purple.
The driver was female but without an ounce of girlishness to her. I stuffed the map into a trash can that had more garbage outside of it than in and stepped up to the curb. It was the very sudden and loud honk of a horn that gave me my brilliant idea.
No one stopped and offered to help, but to be fair, I didn’t ask anyone either. People brushed past me as I tried to make sense of the map.
The sun was barely visible thorough the clouds but it bounced off the windows with a too bright glare - to me, at least - and I had sunglasses on! I thought I had come better prepared, what with the coat, hat and gloves I also wore, but my body still tingled ominously. If I’m going to continue being honest, the dizzying effect of being outside certainly didn’t help. I tried to use a map I’d bought from the bus terminal, but between the people, the noise and the towering buildings it wasn’t long before I was hopelessly lost. It’s all so big and loud and crowded! I’d never seen so many people in one place before. I don’t know if anyone reading this is from NYC, but if you are, I have to say I have no idea how you do it. I liked him and he was right about Bessie because we arrived in NYC without any further hiccups. He wasn’t terribly fond of the newer busses, like the one we’d just abandoned, because he said a lot of other things about them that I can’t really bring myself to type out. Whenever a passenger complained our driver thumped the steering wheel and said with confidence that Bessie (he named the bus!) was the best and she’d get us to NYC.
The second bus was much older than the first and ran with a whine and shake that suggested it was on its last leg. I’ve never taken a bus across the country, but… that’s not exactly normal, is it? I mean, I don’t think it was related in any way to my task, but it was kind of odd.
I arrived in NYC several hours later than was scheduled.