by Matthew Pierce
PureTravel Writing Competition 2023
Certainly, it could be the way in which playing video games has a long-lasting hold on those; rapidly advancing cognition or learning skills.
His work has given Dad bus tickets again. Those are for him and his family to travel to New York City on these days. He is a journalist when he is at work so the least, I could do was leave my Gameboy Advanced video games at home.
The silver-gray shuttle has tinted windows and mine and my mom and dad are bright reflections before our luggage is boarded. Three-quarters towards the back of the bus, Kevin and I sit next to one another. Our Mom and Dad sit halfway into the front area of this seating and its plaid seats. I am eleven years old and Kevin is seventeen before his birthday in August.
This makes for a brisk day that is overcast and cloudy. There is no rain despite lingering cloud cover or breezes that seem to bite into the wrists or any exposed areas. Kevin reads his paperback novel that could be a ‘dystopian future’ and I draw in my notebook or the journal with straight lines as a guide.
The bus leaves us off at Fourteenth Street, near the business district, so we notice a building in recommission by President Donald Trump or one of his associates. For a commission, perhaps, rather than a change of ownership. There were at least its recurring angles and stolid architecture. We find our way across that walkway and follow an alley adjacent to this side street.
There is an aroma of stewed sauerkraut when we stumble upon the next vendor at that block, there. My hot dog looks plain compared to ‘the works’ Kevin dresses his dog with ketchup and mayonnaise. Mine has only ketchup and not very much of it. Dave and Mary; Dad and Mom have ice water when they wait for lunch, later on, to have anything to eat, yet.
Dave is my Dad and he is Kevin’s Father-In-Law. We appreciate him very much. Mary is either Kevin’s or my Mom and also the mother to Adam. Adam is the oldest brother and is away at graduate school when he is in California, the Los Angeles area, or near that region; we consider that education when Kevin and I visit Manhattan Bagels in New York City and we meet our parents for lunch. There is an ethnic store where we buy drinks. Then, Dad selects a Thai Restaurant that the rest of us can come to an agreement on.
The menu is vast even though I settled on the Duck Platter, here at Phin Yu’s. When I close my menu, Mary urges her husband, Dave, to consider looking towards the entrance. Our table is not far from where the actor Robin Williams and his wife or accompaniment sit. Maybe he did not tell me or the visit with him did only last one or two minutes. Kevin agrees that he had found plenty of work. I am thankful for that moment he did have to share with us before we found our own consideration of time for the appetizers and were served brunch.
The wait was worth it and the Duck Platter made for an exquisite selection. Nothing wrong with the duck. It is always one of my favorites, though, with that particular side dish.
My walkman has a new set of double A batteries and I am thankful, again, that my eldest brother put into its action when Adam made the cassette mix tape for a play on the other cassette tape player with headphones. Dad says the restaurant was fine but it was not fantastic. It was okay, from what I remember, and the service was prompt. There was nothing wrong with the food at Phin Yu’s Thai Takes Restaurant that afternoon. There was a minor adjustment in our price differences from the sales tax in both the State we had come out of and here in New York State. Some differences either at the food cart or here and in the city.
There is time to regroup so we sit down in Central Park when the sun breaks through staggered cloud formations. On a ferry boat that we tour in for thirty minutes or an hour. Then we cross by the shopping district and clothes shop for winter attire, though, we are working off our meals and then quick to find a new store to examine. We settle on T-shirts and Khaki pants when Kevin finds similarly priced outfits of blue jeans and a polo shirt. There are racks of long sleeve shirts and other merchandise like that. We find everything we need at the clothing store.
There is time for a museum and we are given a tour of that early New York cul de sac or duplex. Some of this Country’s first utilities or appliances had made their ways to New York City although it was before other towns and provinces found use of it; refrigerators or a washing machine may have first been adapted to life in the city. Hot water was slower to be adopted by isolated residences or a County, Town or State. The museum was very detailed and explorative or those issues should go on to suggest it.
Dad reminds us to visualize when the bus home might arrive. We leave plenty of time to travel back to the departure area where we will run into the bus home. The one that returns us to our hometown or a town over from that. Mary and Dave gather their belongings and Kevin and I retrieve our coats before we exit the museum. Clothes we might put on before the bus ride back to that State are kept safe in plastic or cloth shopping bags. We could visit Ohio next time to avoid New York City’s traffic lights this time of year and still find time to shop.
The batteries get tested when I power on the Walkman and turn that off and I see the red power diode light up and then go dull. There will certainly be an opportunity for the audio track again on the ride back through Pittsburgh and across those rivers – Our drop-off spot was six blocks from here and we will arrive on time if we are quick in our gate. We make it to the bus home at the appropriate time that evening, and along the route, with any exchange over to another bus.
After we load our bags onto the next carriage, Kevin and I find seats next to one another and Mom and Dad sit by each other. Kevin is near the middle of this book and the front cover is folded along the creased spine of the grim and augmented novel that must be five hundred pages in length. I will get into reading horror novels someday and, for now, listen to Hot Town Summer In The City by The Lovin’ Spoonful. When the bus starts to move, the cassette player transmutes a song about sophistication and ‘man’s grasp’ on insight, which is by The Kinks.
Night lights at this hour litter the skyline. Some of the roads had detours because of the bridge closures out of those boroughs. The night’s route is similar to what the day had offered and the seats are at least comfortable on this bus. There may have been various music from the nineties and now somewhere in the catalog of that cassette tape with two sides to it and a label.
What stops me from flipping over the tape is the scattered glare of storefront lighting when that reimburses my vision, and I sleep for intervals and then adjust my belongings before falling back asleep. It was a day trip to New York City.
Image: Unsplash, Andrea Belussi
