EUGENE: I tell Alma I’m coming up to visit. I’m dying to see her–I need to see her. I need to see “New York.” I need to see these skyscrapers and subway stations. How big are the skyscrapers/how long are the stations? I need to taste “Chinese/Caribbean curries” she’s always talking about–I want to see what’s in those exotic stews. I want to taste them–I want to taste them with her. I want to see why she finds them so exotic and would I find them that way. I want to see/hear the music she’s always talking about. I cannot really hear/have never heard anything much beyond gospel/blues? Will I like anything beyond gospel/blues? Is there anything beyond gospel/blues? (Beat) I take the train–my first train ride. (Pause) I’m watching the trees as the train whizzes by. I’m aware how crooked they are. When I was a child they frightened me. I would look at those trees at night while I was in bed and think something would come through those trees and into the room and get me. But I’m looking out the window on my way to New York and I’m a grown man and it’s daytime. (Beat) An old woman across from me keeps offering me food. She tells me she’s on her way to Philadelphia to visit her son. Next to her, there are two girls playing hand games. I look to my other side, there is a man quietly reading. All of these people have this look–this bearing–like they are so sure of everything. I hear one of the girls say, (LITTLE GIRL 1) “I ain’t never been to New York before but I’m glad I’m goin.” (EUGENE) The other little girl says, (LITTLE GIRL 2) “Me too but I hear it’s real bad.” (EUGENE) Her sister says, (LITTLE GIRL 1) “We got to see for ourselves.” (Pause) (EUGENE) Out of the mouths of babes. (Beat) How big is New York really/Do people really get “New York fever”? (Beat) How could people live in a place so big without feeling lost? (Pause) How do you not feel lost? (Beat) I wonder how sleek/slick some of those dudes are up there? Any of them hitting on Ama? I listen to Alma on the phone/I listen to how different she sounds. She sounds like she’s lived in New York forever. She doesn’t ask about South Carolina at all–not at all. (Beat) I can feel her holding me/does she still WANT to hold me/does she still WANT ME? (Beat) I go to the “cocktail car.” I have one bourbon–just one. I go back to my seat. The old lady is sleeping and so are the little girls. The man to my side is still reading. I look out the window and it’s dark. The train keeps whizzing by those trees. Even though the train is moving fast, the trees still look scary, gloomy. I close my eyes–I will not look at the trees. Alma’s holding me. I close my eyes–Alma and I are in New York and we’re together.