Outside the Box

Put on your heels and sparkles, chimes a familiar voice, and the Lower East Side begins to glow. We toast to unknown adventures, to a Friday night in Manhattan. She says we live on the same street, and we describe stoops, steps, and curves of the ginkos to find our respective doors. Don't you know who lives there?! she says incredulously and lists the celebrities, but you do not care, it is your street now, you don't know how you could ever give it away to anyone else.

We skip the line at the door, velvet ropes parting and we sneak quickly upstairs to the boudoir. Appearances can be deceiving as naked women tease and play on stage, and a hostess wearing glasses twists in the drapes. The car goes to Brooklyn, you leave them in the street, it's such a familiar way home along Houston and you walk it like you know what you're doing. A Freedom Tower lights up in the distance, it is always there, at every corner, and you realize what a void the others left when they were no longer there. There's a sweet taste of pineapple on your lips, the last drink lingering as your feet grow tired under the full moon. Tomorrow you wake up in New York City, and the morning after, it is the best surprise you could wish for and you promise to never ask for anything else.

I keep saying I'm just going back to get it out of my system, you confide in her, but I'm beginning to see it's just a lie. You try to leave before you get left behind.

But your heart will bleed all over this island,
and there'll be nothing left to save, when you do.