A summery July moon shines bright above Elise, a tenement girl of sixteen, clad in a white, paint splattered crop T-shirt beneath an old, black jean jacket, black ripped jeans and black combat boots, her version of street-punk chic. She’s toting a canvas drawstring backpack over one shoulder as she walks along Manhattan’s theater district. The street is heavily congested with private vehicles, taxis and buses. Elise rapidly blinks her eyes against the glare of the red, yellow, and green lights reflecting off vehicles and store fronts. Rushing towards the 49th street subway entrance to escape the incessant sounds of honking and shouting as sleek, fashionable club-goers, and restaurant and theater patrons spill out onto the sidewalk. Running…show more content… Hurriedly crossing the platform, she turns left into a stairwell and it's almost like fighting a downward river current. People are walking into her path as she struggles to top of the stairs. A moment later, Elise reaches the summit and looks left at one staircase where people are ascending, then right at another staircase where other passengers are ascending. More people are coming in and out of the turnstiles on the right-hand side. She quickly makes her way to the left staircase and ascends to the platform just as the gray snake of a subway comes up from underground. The subway cars rattle as they pull in, Elise boards an almost empty car and sits across from a Puerto Rican woman whose head is leaning against the window, half asleep, clearly at the end of a long shift. In East Harlem, Elise emerges from the subway, the people here are not so fashionable. It’s a neighborhood well-dressed people don’t visit. Junkies stand around on the street corners, while prostitutes prowl the sidewalks. A prostitute in a red vest top and a latex mini skirt, with over-the-knee boots and black fishnet tights is strolling towards Elise as a passing car pulls to the curb. The driver stares at Elise with interest, but she ignores him. Red mini skirt approaches the car, “Hey, baby, you lookin’ for a date?” He looks the prostitute over and with a nod of his head, the red mini skirt…show more content… A police car stops across the street and two patrolmen get out and roust the vagrant out of his doorway. Mysterious open windows, black, looked down on her from the tenement buildings. A group of young men sitting on a stoop watch as she walks by. One of them whistles. Elise keeps walking. She listens to the rumble of the train passing nearby. A series of little explosions sounded off in the distance—firecrackers like the rattle of machine guns. Then the sound of gunfire comes so fast, she jerks even though she has become accustomed to the sound, still she picks up her pace, unsure how close the gunfire is. Still moving along, she passes dark alleyways, a deserted debris-littered parking lot and a junkie, stoned out and spread-eagle across the hood of a derelict old green chevy. She turns the corner and walks about a block, sidestepping two drunken bums fighting and enters a crumbling old tenement building. She walks into the dank lobby and thought she smelled dried piss. It is dark and full of shadows. Trash is all around, clogging the arteries of the building. Leaning close, she examines the mail boxes and opens the mail box for apartment 4C, there's no
