You are currently viewing the stories for April, 2013

Playing Hide and Seek in the Bronx

by 04/25/2013
Neighborhood: Bronx

Decades ago, when my brother was about ten and I around fourteen, he began to spend an extraordinary amount of time in his room. We lived in an apartment in a sketchy neighborhood in the Bronx. There were muggings, petty and not so petty thefts, and a few cases of violent crimes. Still, we played […]

Dope

by 04/25/2013
Neighborhood: Williamsburg

*This story is written from the perspective of the author’s former roommate. The names have been changed but all events happened as stated. Andy is being a serious cocksucker and holding onto my money. He won’t give me any. He says it’s for my own good and that I’ll just go and spend it on […]

Scaffolding

by 04/18/2013
Neighborhood: Financial District

Once upon a time, when I was a teenager working as a bike messenger, I would stop midway across Central Park, somewhere along the North side of the Great Lawn, and take a break to regard the skyline along the park’s southern edge. I was always hoping to see signs of new construction. This would […]

Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood Reading Series, April 18, 7 PM

by 04/09/2013
Neighborhood: News

Our April reading will be stories on the topic of Fleeting Connections, as read by Neighborhood contributors Fran Giuffre, Trevor Laurence Jockims, Robin Kilmer, and Ken Rosen. Hosted by Rob Williams.

Respect for the Dead

by 04/08/2013
Neighborhood: Upper West Side

I was on the 2 Express uptown on my way home after work. It was about 6:30 pm. We straphangers who were standing were packed in like sardines. As the train pulled into the 79th Street station, there was a sound, a whooshing of air, a release. It felt as though the power had been […]

The Circle Line

by 04/02/2013
Neighborhood: Across the River, All Over

She throws an envelope onto the kitchen table, vaguely in my direction. She has written my name on it, and underlined it twice. I know what’s in it: it’s my birthday and inside it there will be, as always, a check. I am only ten-years-old, and I do not exactly know what to do with […]

Of Love and Real Estate

by 04/01/2013
Neighborhood: Park Slope, Prospect Park, Windsor Terrace

Breaking up is hard. That’s true even if you’ve been thinking about it a long time – weighing the scales back and forth. Am I better staying in this thing or am I better getting out? Sometimes it can go on for years, like it did for me. Because parts of it were perfect and […]