Just One Day's Progression
Saul Golubcow
Ida sort of knew that there were people on the street; she did know because it was New York and the middle of the day and the sun and perspiration and stores open and well you take it for granted that you're not the only one walking down 57th street near 5th avenue. But she was only sort of walking down the street because you can walk and then you can move. And that's what Ida was doing moving on well oiled thighs in a hinge-like personal processional of body upon buttocks upon thigs upon calves upon ankles upon soles trapped in flimsy shoes that allowed the big toe to point out and maybe if they were luck one or two little one also.Of course the toes had a purpose besides just being physiologically important because she really couldn't give a damn about the importance of anything let alone toes that she got before she even knew to ask for something. But the toes shuffling along no that's wrong nobody would really understand the way she moved. Maybe a gentle sway on those previously mentioned hinges but that's not right either. The best way to understand the movement is somewhere in between the sway and the shuffle with eyes titled toward those toes watching them move one past another like a track race where none of the runners really care if they win or not just passing the guy in front of him and waiting for that guy to pass him. Eyes on those toes eventually winding up where the toes peeked back changing pace only when she felt that her toes might stub someone as she bumped into them but so far she hadn't bumped into anyone she was functioning on an automatic level with an automatic synchronized gear movement that she used to pass people to the right and left. It made no difference on 57th street especially if you knew how to drive in the city in a bright blue rain coat style coat from neck shoulder torso in general over dress and undergarments and even more generally over flesh down to her knees which showed exposed to her eyes because she was looking that way and to anyone else who might like to glance at knees of a girl who was automatically moving and suddenly thinking about aardvarks which she used to see in the dictionaries that she used to use in high school and even last year when she was a sophomore in school and used the dictionary to look up words that she didn't know and which eventually wound up in the paper that she wasted her time on because it was due three days ago and then due the next day and the rain coat style rain coat blue bright with yellow polkadots sprinkled very liberally over the blue threatening you if you looked at them polkadotizing your mind like you've never been polkadotized before and still thinking about the aardvarks and its long nose that ate ants and appeared on the first page of dictionaries making Ida lose her shifting prowess because the damned aardvarks were taking over her mind and hating it because of all the stupid things to think about she had to think about aardvarks that she hadn't even seen but accept the fact that they existed because dictionaries don't lie even about how they eat ants so Ida bumped into Sandy.
Of course she didn't know it was Sandy because she never met Sandy before nor was she to meet Sandy besides that second where Ida's toes met Sandy's heel scraping the skin off and Ida's nose into shoulder blade because Sandy was one of those really tall heavy girls that are just made for bumping into with shades sheltering her eyes cushioned on a big what they Roman nose and a big wide mouth and jutting chin pretty ugly girl with a big bright orange overcoat hiding the big boned big breasted big hipped thick ankled awkward body and Ida took her face out of the orange folds and quickly muttered an excuse me to the quickly turned pissed off glance of this ugly girl that kept walking away but Ida stopped just standing there also pissed off because that ugly bitch in front of her made her stop walking and that meant she had to stop thinking about those aardvarks and do what she remembered she came to 57th street for away from the student center that she went to because it was there and she didn't want to stay in her dorm room and study and besides her roommate also went and never said anything like let's stay in the dorm or go to the library and when they did go to the library it was too hard to sit there so student center seemed right and appropriate for any purposes Ida may have had in coming to the stupid girl's college sitting with her roommate depressed and sometimes happy but not usually knowing that a lot of others sitting at the other tables eating others popcorn and drinking different cups of 7 up that they too were hung up and that helped but often not much while sitting besides her roommate and other friends and watching the other people as they drank and talked and having these guys who were passing themselves off as leftists and radicals and beat come over and putting the move on you and Ida knew that they were just faking it. They were scared like any high school kid that she used to know in high school that were afraid that she's shoot them down and she didn't much like them for making the move even though it was suppose to be flattering but instead thought it was rather obnoxious especially since she knew how phony the dirty shirts and levis really were and sometimes like one or two of them because sometimes phoniness was only human and you learn to live with it and it wasn't too bad if you weren't tired of everyone in this screwed up place or world and sort of crazy about this half-bald long-haired artist with the nothing fabulous looking striking face and the chuckle that was a belly laugh and who wasn't really an artist but an art history teacher which already probably took away some of the sensitivity and was having his own identity crisis at 35 or 40 or whatever age he had to be existing at. Making Ida run around saying corny stuff like my artist, my artist, why hast thou forsaken me when the didn't believe in her own people's god and thought it dishonest stealing somebody else's but he did look like jesus christ and sitting in student center just wasn't good enough today when she could be on 57th street looking for a painting and not thinking anymore about creepy looking artists who weren't artists and even a little gay or else a whole lost so so she ran back to her room and grabbed her checkbook and walked down 57th street until she bumped until Sandy.
Which made her realize that she might as well turn into that doorfront that had a sign on top of it which said Brown Gallery which made her crack a joke to herself which she would never repeat to anyone else how she didn't want any pictures that were only brown. it was funny. climbing some carpeted steps until she came to another Brown sign this one on top of an arrow pointing in a certain direction which she followed until she came to this better carpeted hallway type room with arches connecting one end to another end where there was this desk and this haggy looking more than middle aged woman with caky makeup and tightly corseted body varicosed veined legs and nauseating perfume. who asked Ida if she could help but Ida didn't need any help because she saw what she wanted titling her head to all angles looking at this hillbilly picture by Thomas Hart Benton with these men with elongated heads and beards and elongated bodies and hands something like mannerists used to paint but cruder and not as interesting so Ida didn't like it but liked it for that and she asked how much it was and the lady said 40,000 dollars and Ida said to wrap it up shocking the lady who couldn't see Ida carrying the painting out just like that but when Ida finished writing out the check for 40,000 dollars she seemed to find lots of brown wrapping paper to wrap the painting in and gave it to Ida who doubted if the check would pass since she only had 79.81 in her checking account but it didn't make any difference as she walked down the carpeted steps away from the pointing arrow on her way to student center where her friends would be pushing upon the door to the Brown Gallery into the street picture first in front of her knocking into David Joseph Schaffer who looked generally dishevelled as far as dishevelled people go on 57th street with frizzy hair long and not neat with a wrangler jacket to go with his wrangler pants as nice as brooks brother's suit with sandals showing more toes than Ida also dirtier than Ida and wanted eagerly to see what Ida bought under the wrapping paper that had nearly knocked him over knowing that Ida like him simply because there was nothing for to dislike. Especially since she was spontaneously in love with the guy and Ida didn't care as she helped him rip the paper away looking at his face with its afternoon growth of beard and small mouth and wide nose dark regular eyes on a skinny frame that wasn't tall a little taller than Ida and he kept talking saying how lousy it was and Ida agreeing and laughing and laughing more when she told him how much she paid.
David helped Ida put the 40,000 dollar Thomas Hart Benton picture of elongated hillbillies into or rather on top of a waste basket that had a sign that said keep new york city beautiful having the picture serve as a lid to all the garbage that would have flown out making New york city less beautiful walking away from madison towards 5th and getting on a downtown bus that took them all the while he was talking and she was listening to him become more human getting off near 42 street and finding Nedicks he bought for them 2 hot dogs and an orange drink but couldn't afford another orange drink because he only had 8c left he needed 10 so she bought herself one with her own money and he seemed glad that she did not like some guys she knew who get offended when girls pay for something themselves and he gulped his food revealing an identity crisis not at 35 or 40 but this time at 23 and Ida began accepting identity crises as something nice and he even said some things about himself that made him conditioned and structured sucked-in is what her friends sitting at student center would call it and she liked that and started to love that term as she loved this boy that she met 45 minutes ago not too concerned if he loved her just listening to him tell about his friend who was driving out to California the next day where they'd live and she'd work and he'd take some courses in one of the universities out there and said sucked-in things like future and job and kids and security not knowing that Ida knew it was sucked-in but making her more crazy about him as he taunted her for wanting to go back to school and pick up some ore clothes that she insisted she would need on the trip telling him to wait at the Nedicks for a few hours until she came back with a suitcase and clothes in it putting on the blue bright polkadot coat buttoning it the way it should be counting how much money she had in her pocketbook giving David a dollar so he could get some more to eat looking forward to three hours late and tomorrow and the day after walking out of the Nedicks sucked-in and happy.
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