The River Styx
I have a ferry wait time limit: never more than a half-hour. In the salad days before the end of summer, I’d hop off the N at Rector Street and belly up to the bar at Ulysses for a drink or two to kill time before the next boat. Nowadays, If I have to wait an hour for the boat to dock at Whitehall, I’ll just continue into Brooklyn and transfer to the S53 at 86th Street.
This is the dreariest of trips, especially in the wee hours. I have to transfer to the R at 59th Street in Brooklyn, and there’s no telling how long it’ll take for the R, relegated to meager Bay Ridge shuttle status at that time of night, to show up. The only bright spot is that the delis on 86th are still open, and they make a mean sandwich.
Last night, the N had dropped me off with 35 minutes to spare. This time, open air won out over a late night trolling the tunnels. I walked upstairs to sit on the patio behind the neon Staten Island Ferry sign. I like to watch the ferry come in at night. It seems to emerge out of nowhere when it swings around Governor’s Island. I opened the side doors of the terminal and saw a couple sitting on a bench—a man and a woman. I thought the man looked like Lou Reed from behind. When I took my seat on the neighboring bench, I realized the man was David Johansen from the New York Dolls.
Coming up on 3:30 a.m., Lower Manhattan was even quieter than usual, but I couldn’t make out their conversation. (I’m a chronic eavesdropper. I’m not as ashamed of it as I should be.) The lady had long black hair and a nice laugh, which she flashed often during their dialogue. Thought I couldn’t make out what he was saying, Johansen’s voice had a vampiric tone—dark and hollow. Between drags of his cigarette, the only word that rang clear was “fascists.”
I entered the ferry alongside them. As soon as I got on the boat, I turned on the ramp and headed downstairs so I could stand outside. When I did so, I was facing Johansen and his lady. She was smiling as she propped him up; he wore amber sunglasses and had the pallor of the walking dead.
