Negatively, Fourth Street
Going face-first onto the sidewalk in The Village
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Here’s one to remember: after skinning your knee badly don’t think that having a shower when you get home is sufficient. Disinfect. I didn’t and am on a 7-day cycle of antibiotics after developing a skin infection. Word to the wise and all that. Updated 6/26/22
This strange thing used to happen to me more often than I like to admit. I’d be there on a bar stool having just missed my shot on the pool table, just sitting there minding my own business and not hurting anyone, not starting any kind of shit (usually), when BAM! The floor would slam up against the side of my head.
I never had any sensation of falling. My first reaction was fury at that fucking floor for doing that again.
Well, last night as I was walking along West Fourth Street in the Village I did not have that experience. The moment my toe hit the raised bit in the sidewalk in front of the Washington Square Methodist Church time slowed down and I experienced every stretched-out second of going face-first into the pavement. That last moment of impact, though, that happened fast.
And there I was laying on my face wondering what the damage was.
Doing a quick inventory while my poor badly shaken-up partner, AleXander, was asking if I was OK I determined that I hadn’t lost any teeth. Always a good sign after a fall.
Let’s see.
Glasses not broken. Another plus. Chin, upper lip, right elbow, right hand, and right knee good and properly scraped up. A little bleeding happening. Front teeth still in my head but definitely feeling the aftereffects of the impact. Several people paused to ask if I needed help but with AleXander on the scene, it was clear I had help.
I remember watching a leggy young lovely staggering along in a tiny micro mini dress that barely covered her bits do a headlong plunge onto the sidewalk further uptown one night long ago.
It pains me to share that I kept right on walking. You know, as if I was in New York City or something.
Eventually, with AleXander’s help, I got back onto my feet. Able to walk — if slowly — we made our way to the 1 train on Christopher Street. He was…
