My phone vibrated on my desk at work this evening. It was Jen. Hey, I said, and she said hey.
"Look out your window."
"What?"
"Look out your window!"
I got up and looked. It dawned upon my addled consciousness that she was out there somewhere, amid the barking Holland Tunnel traffic.
"Do you see me? I'm waving," she said. I began to wave robotically out my fifth floor window at the dark. I perceived shadowy figures across the street, beyond the rows of box-blocking cars. "I'm across the street! I'm waving!" I saw one figure waving as I heard this in my ear. I was waving still. Back and forth, wave, wave, wave. Crouching a bit to see beneath the blind.
"Dan's here!"
"I see you! Down there," I said. Waving.
She was waving from the southeast corner of Greenwich and Canal. Like magic, I could see her dark arm and silhouette yet hear her voice, clear in my ear. She said they were doing something, going somewhere, God only knows.
I was thinking of something to say.
"Kick him in the ass for me."
And then I saw her booted foot arc off the ground and strike the form beside her.
"See? Did you see me kick his ass?"
"Yes," I replied. "Yes!" Waving.