Page 466 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
Ten long minutes have gone by, but, as usual, I am about ten minutes early, so no reason at all to be annoyed. However, although this is, as I’ve too often joked, my “one hundred thirty-seventh” blind date, I am a bit nervous. The elevator door opens, and, just like that, any nervousness is gone. A very pretty and unaffected auburn-haired young woman, about five-seven, with a natural and inviting smile and a red coat that I still see as I think back on it, emerges. I don’t know it yet, but after three years, seven months, and twenty-eight days, give or take, my life is about to change—very positively. [Fade out.]
6D, 61, 62; 24E, 45 W. 60
But to appreciate that, we must go back approximately three years, seven months, and twenty-eight days, give or take.
The last big change in my (personal) life, you’ll recall, had come on May 7, 1985. That was the day on which six-year-old Rachel formed an understandable yet misconceived enmity for Marcel. He had, after all, helped me put my Richard Sachs into the station wagon. I really don’t remember the full process of moving: whose car it was, what, other than the bike, I was taking (I presume that I did take the classical LPs, my camera equipment, and some generic dishes), or how I went about unloading or getting the stuff, whatever it was, into my new residence, but I do remember that somehow I did get there, return the wagon, and, in some form of a stupor, ultimately get into a new bed for what was probably a sleepless night.
In preparation for moving, I had obtained an illegal sublet of apart- ment 6D at 61 West 62nd Street, a truly mellifluous address. (I had a letter agreement, a three-paragraph sublease, but the tenant did not seek the consent of her landlord for the renting of 6D-61-62.) 6D’s advantages were that it was within walking distance of 575 Madison, that it was near Lincoln Center, that it had two bathrooms, and, most important, that it was furnished. Its primary disadvantage was that its illegal sublease had a relatively short term. So I knew that I would have
• 448 •