Finally, the mythical NYC winter fall happened. For five years I'd managed to keep myself up every time I stepped on ice with quick balance control movements. In the worst case scenario one of my hands always touched the ground on time and pushed back the rest of my body to its original position like the best of the break dancers. I would say that nobody ever noticed those falls, never heard an "Are u ok?” But it happened last night, after my dancing in a beautiful Danny Krivit party. One block from home I slipped on some ice a couple of yards before reaching the sidewalk. I don't remember myself trying to keep up. There is only gray in my memory. Pavement gray. "Aucchhhhh." I also cursed. There was pain in my left knee and in a couple of my right hand fingers. I thought on a bruised nail. "One more this year." Nobody noticed it. I just heard a car honk, that was my "Are u ok?"
The myth says that if one falls in NYC during the winter one will stay in the city forever. So what were the past five years about it? Is everything starting right now? Is that why the cops asked me where am I from last Friday when they stopped, suspected about my drunk driving, pulled me over, tested me and let me go? A real newyorker is the one that has been face to face with the pavement, alone.
In the morning, I decided to do the inventory of injuries. My knee was ok and there was no bruised nail but my right shoulder hurt. Nothing hard or bad, just the strong pain any newyorker feels after seeing the gray.
