The saga of Shirley Fish: a commute transcending any DNAdefense mechanisms and Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn“Take the A train”
II
How could the burly Falstaff of a Fifth Avenue express bus driver know that his two passengers boarding at East 57th Street, up from Mr. Paley’s CBS radio tvee museum , were carrying middle aging identities into their continental marriage (California-the City that never sleeps).
“Gimme a break,” he said, swiveling in his glass contained pilot, taking the hand out, a five spot tendered by the newly wedded husband.“ Express into Brooklyn, people. Scrounge for seats, above the engine. It’s rush hour on Friday,” snapping the doors on the hurly burly East Siders, swarming at his express door, his foot on the gas, screeching toward the FDR Drive, across the Bridge, into Brooklyn.
III
Although the baggage gutters were above the seats, Major Fenton slipped into his mind’s eye, his memorable image of Julie Christie walking at a brisk pace, on a Muscovite Street athigh noon.” Doctor Zhivago” alias Omar Sharif (“Lawrence of Arabia”, Peter O’Toole’s costar) , aroused by the vision of his former nurse as they ministered to the wounded and dying,during the Revolution’s aftermath in those Siberian death defying insanities…..
Meanwhile his bride new to the packed can of sardines, found a space, only a woman, separating her from the window seat and the sprawling East River. The lady’s consciousness cognizant of the Californian’s gaze.
“First time on the Express? Where you hail from?”
“Big mucho ESP. How’d you suspect?”
“Something about your countenance. The air you breathe,” she said. “But you’re not a tourist. You know anyone in the Big Apple?”
“Only one.”
“And who thou? May we ask?”
IV
In his own space, Major Fenton became” Doctor Zhivago”, banging on the streetcar window, screaming his nurse’s name,“Julie Christie” … she oblivious to the mayhem, swept up by the ocean of humanity during Moscow’s rush hour.
Her modus operandi ‘”Don’t sweat the small stuff” ala a Peter O’Toole “ Lawrence of Arabia” command post, a role Alec Guinness was born for. (“My name escapes me”, Hastings on Hudson, Good Yarns book store)
V
The bus crossing the East River, past the Navy Yard, down DeKalb Avenue, past Long Island University onto Flatbush Avenue, Grand Army Plaza ,the Public Library, Prospect Park,through the Park, the Parade Grounds, where Sandy Koufaxplayed his semi pro ball before joining the Dodgers and becoming a Lefty pitching immortal.
“So you were saying,” said the female quiz master, asking Major Fenton’s frau about her staying power in the City that never sleeps. “Shirley Fish was the only one you knew?.”
“We met at the Maimonides Auxiliary. Shirley was the secretary. A lovable compassionate human being. We took to each other like we were long lost relatives.”
”It’s a small world, may be a cliché but in this instance a higherkarma is playing out. Shirley is a twin. I was engaged to her brother for 19 years,” said the lady, morphing into her premarital pedigree, the non stop bus reeling into Flatbush. “When Herbert wanted to say “Yes”, his daughters disagreed “Not now,Daddy” And when I wanted to sign the dead, McNeil, my kids said “What’s the hurry, Mommy?”.
VI
The Fifth Ave Bus rumbling toward its “Last stop. All out,”pulling up at Kings Highway and Ocean Avenue, the unholy triodisembarking from their space above the rear engine.
Mister and Missus Fenton, and the beleaguered fiancé, onceengaged for almost two decades to Herbert, the twin brother of Shirley Fish, Mrs. Fenton’s one and only friend i n the City that never sleeps. A role as secretary to Maimonides ‘s Auxiliary.
The three treading the sidewalk , their cadence toward the subway….Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn “Take the A train”
December 16, 2013. The City that never sleeps
