" ...getting a signature on the lease of a 1600 apartment will net the broker $2,880..."
Walking Distance, Nov 9, 1999
It's seven thirty in the morning and Howard Stern is turned down low because Gennady is sleeping six feet away. I am in the computer area, which is sandwiched between the kitchen and the fireplace. We moved into our much hoped for studio on Saturday- my bed, the Morgandahl, a four poster from Ikea, is basking in the elbow rood. The place is full of my stuff. Gennady is from the Soviet Union and the last time he moved, he was fleeing the country. While I packed my bed, my desk, my clothes and my dishes, Gennady brought a canteen and a knife. Honey, I said, the Germans aren't coming. Grab the VCR.
We're on the last street before Gramercy Park turns into Murray Hill, near Baruch College. We're a ten minute walk from the Union Square Market, a Wednesday, Friday and Saturday event featuring vendors selling fresh food, beeswax candles and cheese. Anything in a five block radius is in our neighborhood. Pete's Tavern, where O Henry wrote the Gift of the Magi, is on Irving Place, D'Agostino's, a supermarket, is around the corner and the YMCA is three stops away on the 6 train. We are on the six train. A late ride home from the Comic Strip is a seven dollar cab ride, (down from twenty five to Brooklyn), New York Comedy Club, a two minute walk and acting class and my day job, ten minutes.
Gennady scratched his head with the frying pan. "Let's make a deal," he said. "Let's not bring anyone friends back to the apartment. I don't bring back any Russians, you don't bring back any comedians."
"Done," I said, grabbing the pan. "And you, please, satisfy your itches with fingers or a towel.
"Done."
Gennady's friend did the moving. When Gennady says he knows someone who will help us, it is a fait accompli. Russians trade favors constantly. The details get blurry upon probing and instead, I look away like Diane Keaton at the end of the Godfather and merely ask that the bed be put over there, please.
Our building's back faces another's and we have a bird eye view into a men's room. We don't see the actual urination, but we do see the unzipping and the closing shake.
No Pets. The washing machine is 1.75, as is the dryer, which tumbles clothes for just thirty minutes.
