Borders Book Store. 57th and Park. Nearly a decade ago. Went to a reading of the newly released TimeQuake. Well before start time, it was already steamy and standing room only. I went back up to street level to smoke a cigarette and think about blowing it off. Standing on the sidewalk, leaning against the brick, I light up. Kurt Vonnegut exits the store alone, and does the same, a few feet away. We smoke in silence for a moment. A gaggle of screechy young fans who’d perhaps seen him exit, spill out of the store and are now determined to spoil his cigarette. He spots them before they spot him, and he ducks into a dark doorway a bit farther down. The screechies whimper, then scatter back in. I smoke in peace. As does the glowing cherry above the arch-framed raincoat to my left.The bookstore door then spits out another Vonnegut seeker, this time a gentleman I’d seen with him earlier. Validation enough for me. I point to the smoke-spewing doorway and the man trots over to fetch The Man, assuring me I'd done the right thing by telling me he was the lawyer. On their way back past me, I’m thanked. By the lawyer. I decided to skip the reading, but went home with a signed copy of the book, and a smile I couldn’t explain to my boyfriend because he was under the curious impression I'd quit smoking weeks earlier.
I’d like to say I quit soon after because this smoking-precipitated encounter couldn’t be topped. Or that free will kicked in. But it was mostly that lung cancer thing. And the smelly hair. And the boyfriend.
RIP, Vonnegut.
2 comments:
Comment 1.): I am seldom impressed with celebrity encounterings but this is a great story.
2.) Here in Indiananoplace, Indiana, Mr. Vonnegut is pretty much all we've had to brag about culturally since Wes Montgomery passed away back in the 60's and we're fuckin' beside ourselves.
There were big plans to make Vonnegut the city's Man of the Year this year with him speaking all over the place and the key to the city, etc. etc. etc. and his passing has pretty much blown us out of the water.
I'm sure that there are emergency meetings going on about what to do about this and i'm sure they'll wind up bestowing whatever honors they were gonna bestow upon Vonnegut to John Mellencamp but somehow it just doesn't seem right.
I loved him and i love that his grandfather, the architect, designed 6 structures in my neighborhood.
Two of my favorite men, talking about bad animals, and a planet with an independent will:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7RRufrhjfRM
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