Alice, Anthony, and I saw in the New Year on 3rd Avenue. A gang member of Puerto Ricans from the Lower East Side muttered at Alice, "What are you looking at, ugly?"
Ship horns from the harbor signaled the end of 1978 and the gang member wished us, "Feliz año nuevo."
We returned the wish.
The Puerto Ricans turned eastward into the barrio. A good year. I hoped none of them got shot or ODed and got jobs and got out of the Lower East Side, although none of us knew where else to go. Except tonight we head to Paul's Lounge. Dull drinking. I was not enthused about getting faced for 1979, but I never needed an excuse to drink, certainly not on New Year's Eve.
We retired early to 256. Straight to bed. Naked and tired from her flight, Alice fell asleep fast. Sometimes I think she fakes sleep to avoid sex, the same way I fake orgasms to caught short sex.
Things between us have been strange. since her arrival. I met her at La Guardia. Different waves of arrivals and departees preceded her appearance. Their faces self-satisfied at traveling by air. Gloating, "It's the only way to go." A walk in the East Village will wipe away that smug attitude.
I spot Alice. White plastic leather coat, a black and white striped dress, a purple sweater. She was the prettiest girl in the airport, although several stewardesses were a close second and third.
She resisted kissing me, as if I might have a cold. People walk around us. Staring. Me in black like a defrocked priest and thrift store Alice.
"I heard about you?
"Heard about what? There were no secrets at CBGBs.
"I didn't t have anything to drink in West Virginia. I didnt feel like it."
"And I'm a bad influence." I couldn't remember the last time I had stopped drinking. I take her bag and refrain from saying how much I missed her. Our time apart was spent with her skiing and visiting family. I drank at CBGBs and worried about how I was going to get money. I lost control with drugs and one sexual trysts. I am sure Alice knows. Everyone around me is incapable of of keeping a secret.
"Fuck everything,"A co-worker at Ebasco, clutching his arm. "There is grief everywhere, but I'm not going to shoot myself. There is always more of the same in the future."
MAN OF THE YEAR
President Carter is out due to his close relationship with Rockefeller and Kissinger. Chairman Teng of Red China was selected by Time Magazine. Non white selection. Anita Bryant's anti-gay platform challenged our freedom and was banned from the lucrative OJ commercials. Running out of contestants I pick the ousted Shah of Iran. A evil man trying to keep control after years of trying to haul Persia from the control of the mullahs and religious majority resisting any modernization. Prosperity and new rights are forced on the resistant people. The mullahs also hated him for seizing their lands. Greed and the violence from SAVAK are b]negatives, so I'll vote for no one.
DISASTER OF THE YEAR.
Despite the wars, and floods, and earthquakes were trumped by the Jonestown Massacre. Mass suicide to achieve salvation. Bloated bodies in the jungle. Children too.
CHOKE OF THE YEAR
The Red Sox playoff game against the Yankees. Bucky Dent hitting his third HR of the season. Yaz popping up up in the ninth with two men on base. We will never win a World Series. The Yankees went on to win the World Series with Bucky Fuckin' Dent as the MVP.
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