Willow

It’s nice that the heat has really broken. It’s still summer in New York City, but the wave of disgusting mugginess is finally over. I walk briskly to the station and catch the train just as it is pulling in. Miriam B. is here. She gets a seat right next to Jon E. who says hello. I sit across from them, but Miriam still takes a moment to ask about my recent trip to Israel.

Daniel F. walks right by me. He says hello to some other bloke on the train but then moves on. I am pretty sure he saw me, so I wonder if he just didn’t recognize me, or if he didn’t say hello because he is now engaged to one of my recent X’s best friends, somehow turning me off limits.

Next to me is an young Orthodox Jewish man, heavy set with blondish hair and stubbly cheeks. He has on blue jeans, a t-shirt, and sandals. He keeps trying to talk the girl next to him and show her things on his Blackberry, but she seems irritated each time. She is content to listen to her IPod, which is wrapped in a cloth case that, were it not form fitted around a piece of modern technology, might be three or four decades old. Finally she takes the Blackberry from his hand, read for a few seconds, and bursts out laughing. They spend the rest of the time chatting.

Across from me Miriam has settled in with her own IPod and is reading Soap Digest. Jon, in his beige shorts and red t-shirt, is reading The Economist, and on Miriam’s other side a woman is read Yoga Magazine. I take out the New Yorker and join them, music playing on my Blackberry in the background.

At 59th, I switch to the D train. There is a middle-aged man standing near me, tall and broad, with a pony tail of gray streaked hair. He turns around and I see his hair is thinning at the top and he has a thick mustache hanging above his lips, along with large round glasses and a wide belt. What really stands out though, is a necklace constructed of a standard metallic link chain, with a large Jewish star attached at the front. In one hand, the man is carrying today’s paper. In the other, bunches of willow stalks sprouting from a large shopping bag.