Tag: Central Park

Jerry and his mom

Jerry and Anat went out for a walk. Anat was feeling good. She was having a healthy pregnancy. She is a little older. Her main concern was using her arsenal of dried fruit before the baby was born. She didn’t want to make crazy movements that could harm her future child.

She knew Jay was out there. Jerry’s biological mom, Diane, was cleaning herself up. She knew Jerry was no longer hers. She knew she should have never married Jay. She was in a bad spot several years ago. She liked him and got hooked on his alcohol and drug-fused lifestyle. She wasn’t innocent. She tried plenty of drugs on her own and with friends. But she was more controlled than Jay. He was utterly out of control. Jerry knew Jay was his dad. They fought in Central Park. He had no real memories of Diane. Remember, he was abandoned when he was three. He spent the first few years of his life being abused. When he got to the child center, he pushed his parents out of his mind.

Anat and Jerry were strolling down Third Avenue in the nineties. All was calm. Diane walked by and noticed the two of them. Jerry gazed at her. He made some connections. Tightly, he squeezed Anat’s hand. Anat remembered the battles she had with her and Jay. She was easy to defeat. She has no powers. Jerry was getting ready to launch his olives at Diane. But he wasn’t sure why. Anat pushed him across the street.

Diane wept. She knew she had no business being his mom. She was doing well in her rehab program and hoped to start over. It was a long way off. But doable.

Meanwhile, Jay was around the corner. Jerry heard him on his iPhone. Their eyes met. Jay was still embarrassed that his then five-year-old son beat him. It was a glass v. olives fight. Jay shot glass at Anat. Jerry jumped in front of it and knocked it down with green olives. Black olives smacked Jay in the head. Anat did not want the two to fight. She didn’t want this to get out of control. She took a deep breath and showered Jay with raisins and dates. Jay tried to fight back with jagged glass. He missed.

Anat and Jerry felt they had done enough damage and walked into Brooks Brothers. Anat had Jerry try on some clothes while wondering if the baby inside her watched this episode and was figuring out his or her powers.

Jen’s pregnancy

Jen announced her pregnancy to the world via Facebook. She was worried not about how she’d handle this stage of her life. But would she be safe? She was doing fine with her married life, her job as a social worker was going well. But she was scared Anat would come after her baby.

She hadn’t heard from Marc for a while. She wasn’t sure if he’d be able to protect her for the whole 9 months. And during her child’s life. She was grateful he and Alana saved her engagement, wedding and honeymoon. But she knew there had to be a limit.

The two of them had their own lives. Eventually, she figured they’d forget about her.

Turns out Marc and Alana were having dinner at City Winery while waiting for Max Weinberg to take the stage. They saw Jen’s announcement. They just looked at each other and clinked their glasses, as Weinberg opened with Thunder Road.

Naturally, Anat saw the post. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want Jen to be happy. But she was wondering if it was time to let bygones be bygones. She was just so upset with her loneliness. She knows she’s a bit off.  But there had to be something that could break for her.

Anat sat on a bench in Central Park with a box of Sun-Maid raisins.  What could be better?  She was fairly calm.

Alana and Marc were walking hand in hand down Spring Street.  As usual, Weinberg finished with Glory Days.  They knew they’d never wed. Or seriously date. But just be each other’s partners in everything.

Marc’s phone buzzed. He had no desire to look. He was doing well with breaking his addiction to it. But it was nonstop. So he figured he should take a peek.

It was a note from Jen.  He gave it a quick read, congratulated her and told her he and Alana had her covered. She’d be fine. But told her to be watchful.

Pomegranate — 20 — Jen breaks out of the web, Alana…..

Jen was flying happily. She spent a lovely afternoon on a date at the Guggenheim and a stroll along the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Central Park Reservoir with brownies from the By the Way Bakery. She and Jake enjoyed the art and their walk. They ended their date with a nice embrace and meaningful kiss. They agreed to meet for dinner next Thursday.

She texted her sister to let her know things went well and were on her way to her apt. And asked her if she wanted to meet for pizza. She felt so relieved that she met a new guy and he seemed to like her. Maybe she’d rid herself of Marc. Let him stay with his goth girl and they can beat each other. They enjoy it.

Meanwhile, Alana was running through Central Park. She saw families and couples picnicking. She knew she’d never be in that situation. But she was coming to terms with it all.

She stopped by the boathouse for a beer. She sat outside by the lake and sipped her Sierra Nevada. She heard lots of conversations. People were talking to each other. Louder people were screaming into their phones. Typical NYC day.

Alana tossed her beer bottle in the trash and started walking toward Strawberry Fields. As she jogged over she tripped over some garbage. She heard some kids laughing at her. But she let it go. No need to beat up little kids.

She heard the usual folks singing Come Together and Hey Jude. At this point, she was thinking of letting it be.   The tourists were taking their pictures on the Imagine mosaic. She heard laughter and tears. She sat on a bench and hummed Penny Lane. Alana was one of the lonely people.

She stared into space. A ball bounced up and hit her in the knee. A little kid ran over to it. He apologized and took it.

She headed to the train. One of the loons was hanging by the station. He was panhandling and made inappropriate remarks to her. She kept walking. The guy had a female accomplice. She started yelling too. Alana moved on. She always thought it was best to walk away.

She walked toward the Gap. She heard their taunts. She thought they were getting softer. But they weren’t. As she opened the door to the Gap she felt a blade running down her the back of her coat. She moved her elbow back and hit the person wielding the knife. It fell out of her hands. She spun around quickly. It was the woman who was taunting her.

Alana wanted to just go into the Gap. But the woman sprung up with the fallen blade. Alana figured she was probably a mentally ill woman who was discharged from a psych ward as the insurance ran out. Marc dated those types.

She was perplexed. She could let it go. Or strike. The woman tried to stab her. At this point, Alana’s eyes bulged. Her fists clenched. She opened them and figs flew out of her hands. They smacked the aggressor in her shoulders. Some landed in her ears and up her already stuffed nose. The woman screamed. Alana kicked her down. She went into the Gap and bought a skirt.

Bleach Monster, part VII

 

Murray woke up to a lovely spring morning. Before he went to bed he watched, Andy pitch a great game and was happy that Cano was beginning to hit well. All was right with the world.

 

Stacey was out of the picture.  Murray was upset. But not terribly depressed. She is cute.  But she wasn’t right for him.  Perhaps he’d find a new crazy before the end of the season.

 

Anyway, he brought his laundry off to the Laundromat. He no longer did his own laundry. He had to be careful with his use of bleach for him to continue to be the “Bleach Monster”.  He hopped on the R-train and headed to Columbus Circle.

 

As he sat on the train he began to read, “Revan”. He was obsessed with the Old Republic. He felt he was part of it. He loved the battles and knew he had to fight much more.

 

He knew he had to form an alliance.  Of course, he had to be in control. He was a little confused about how to get Dani, “the Wine-Girl,” Danny, “Blubber-Boy,” and Tony, “Tear-Water Boy” together under his domain. His sister, Dani would be the toughest.

 

He got off the train and grabbed a hot dog and Pepsi from a street vendor. He began to walk through Central Park.  It was the usual park scene.  Murray went to his rock.  He’d been sitting on that rock and meditating for more years than he can remember. He was good at it. He turned his iPhone off and immersed himself in his thoughts.

 

About an hour later he jumped off his rock and bought bottled water. He hiked over to the lake.  A cute couple was in a rowboat. They were smiling. He dreamed that it was he and his new nut job.  The couple seemed happy.

 

But then he heard sharp words coming from the woman’s mouth about the status of their relationship. She really liked him. The guy liked her. But she always seemed to spend her time with other people.  But she said she had known her other friends for many years and was having trouble squeezing in space for him. He was tired of being the second banana.

 

They rowed back to the boathouse and docked.  They were holding hands.  Murray didn’t hear all of their argument. So he figured they must have made up.

 

He tuned out for a moment or two and sipped his water.  His ears awoke to a shriek. The guy from the rowboat was rolling on the floor in excruciating pain. His girlfriend slashed his hand with a razor blade. She kicked him hard in the chest when he tried to clot the bleeding.

 

She was now running wild through the park. The NYPD tried to stop her. But were no match for her.  Little kids were screaming. Her boyfriend was being tended to by EMS.

 

Murray was not in the mood to deal with her. He was still figuring out how to create his republic. But there was still some good in him and he didn’t want anyone else to be injured.

 

He kicked his legs into high gear and approached her. The two of them exchanged words.  Her eyes were blood red.  Her twisted smile was beyond big. She came at Murray with the razor blade.

 

He didn’t move a muscle. She got within inches of him. Her hand was in attack mode.  As she readied herself to slash his face his eyes shot gallons of bleach.  She was drenched. She went down for the count. She started screaming.  Murray poured some water over her. He didn’t want to kill her.

 

He figured she needed to go to the hospital and then the psych ward.  An EMS technician came over to her. Thankfully, the usual rubbernecking crowd was forming.  This gave Murray an easy escape. He meandered through the crowd unnoticed.

 

No he wasn’t interested in dating this woman even though he had a high tolerance for the mentally ill.  In recent months a young kid broke him away from that.  He finally recognized he needed to stay away.   His breakaway was a slow and enduring process.

 

The sun was blazing. For some unusual reason, no one was around the lake.  Murray jumped in. Did he care if the water was clean? In his neat freak, OCD, GAD mind he did care. He was going rogue.  The water felt great.  After a few minutes of the butterfly and side strokes, he climbed out. As he emerged a pigeon flew right at him. He has a little friend who hates pigeons. He’s not fond of them either. But he didn’t plan on hurting the bird.  It came within inches of him and flew away.

 

Murray grabbed some napkins from a food stand and “toweled” himself dry. His shorts and Gehrig t-shirt were damp. But they were wearable.

 

While in the water he only thought of forming his republic. His crazed, but good and caring mind had lots of ideas.  He sent a strangely worded text to Dani and requested her presence at a gathering….

Bleach Monster, Part V

bleaching-powder-250x250Danny (aka, “Blubber boy”) woke up. He had his whole grain English muffin and a small glass of Orange juice that he mixed with water. Today was a big day. He was going to run a little at the Forest Hills High School track and then go into the City to hang out.

Thanks to Murray his confidence was up. He had a few incidents where he had to use “powers”. Some kids were getting picked on and he had to save them. Murray trained him how to run away fast. This way no one would catch onto him.

Danny was wondering if Murray was trying to create his own version of the Avengers or the Jedi and Sith? Murray loved them all. But is more in touch with the Force.

Danny read his book about the Iron Horse while sitting on the “R” train. He loved the book. Unfortunately, he was having trouble focusing because the person sitting next to him smelled worse than a horse. Danny was not going to go after the smelly guy. Murray might have.

Murray was getting better. He was slowly going back to only rescuing people who were being harmed for no reason. Not for those that are gross or dumb. These misfits did bother people. However, in the greater scheme of things they really didn’t hurt anyone.
Murray was reading the Weekend Journal on the grass of the World Financial Center. Stacey was by his side tanning and flipping through the pages of a magazine. All was well. They shared sips from their water bottle and smiled.

The weather couldn’t have been better. They watched kids play soccer and heard the bounces of the ball from the basketball court behind them. It was almost time for them to get Sierra Nevadas and sip the precious pale ale by the water.

Danny got off at Fifth Avenue and walked into Central Park. He bit into the Granny Smith that he pulled out of his backpack. He hiked through the park.

Meanwhile, Dani and Audrey were in Bloomingdale Park running the through the sprinklers. They were sopping wet. They were having a grand time.

All of sudden Audrey got scared. Dani didn’t know why. But then she heard screams. She quickly moved her eyes and scanned the area. She saw nothing. She figured some kid must have fallen down and scraped his knee.

For the next minute, all was quiet. Kids started playing running to the slidin’ ponds and swings. All was good. Then screams started. Dani clutched Audrey to her side. Once again she scanned the park.

She heard the screams coming from the wooded path leading toward the baseball field. She saw Audrey’s friend, Jamie with her mom on the see-saw with Joan, her mom. Stacey ran over to them and asked if she could watch Audrey, while she went to the latrine.
Joan said no problem. The two of them have been friends for years. Dani walked toward the latrine. But she made a quick left toward the trail. She saw a bloody young boy lying the ground. He was breathing heavily. She heard laughter from behind the large trees.

She took some tissues of out her pocket and started to clean the poor kid up. As she was bent over a rubber ball came flying down from one of the trees and miss her head by inches. She turned around and saw three kids swinging off the branches with joints in their mouths. They couldn’t have been more than 13.

Dani screamed at them. They laughed at her. One threw a beer bottle at her and the kid she was helping. Dani screamed at them.
They started yelling from the trees.

“You see what we did to that dumb kid?”

Dani gave them a look that could kill.

“We are gonna have some fun with you. Then we will kill you. We know who you are, Dani. We will laugh when all your friends come to the funeral and the paper runs a picture of Audrey crying.”

Dani shook her head. “Get down from the trees you wimps. Show that you’re men and face me head on,” Dani screamed.
“Oh we will show you what men are,” they taunted as they jumped down from the trees. As they were airborne, Dani gave the kid a little kiss on the forehead and turned around. The kids just landed on the muddy trail and raced towards her. One of them hit her. She was playing it cool.

They grabbed her. They were laughing fiercely. The kid was scared. The three boys punched her one too many times. All of a sudden a sea of red shot out of her eyes. Wine was flowing nonstop. The kids were so happy. They thought she wanted to drink with them. The kids opened their mouths and started sucking it in.

Minutes later they were passed out on the ground. Dani picked up the kid and took him back to the play area. Joan was frantic. She was worried sick about Dani. She was in the latrine for much longer than should have.

She saw her carrying a bruised up little kid. Dani put him down and Joan raced to her car to get the first aid kit. They took care of the kid. Joan asked for his mom’s number. The kid cried and said my mom is at work and she left me at the park.

But he did give them the number. Dani texted his mom and explained what happened. No answer. Finally, mom answered. She was in tears. She didn’t mean to leave him in the park. Her husband left her. He left her for her manicurist. She said she hasn’t been the same since then. She needs to get grounded.

Dani and Joan stayed with the boy, whose name they learned is Tony. They bought him ice cream. He started playing with Audrey and Jamie. His mom came by and took him home. She thanked them for saving him and asked if she could buy them dinner one night.

Dani took Audrey home and wondered about Tony.