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No, Paul signs with first two fingers and his thuether You’ve lost yourto put that on you

He walks toward the front of the store and sits down beside Friday He’s been trying to get in her pants since she started here It’s too bad she has a girlfriend

I get out my supplies I’ve done more intricate tats on myself I can do this one

He stalks back to the back of the shop where I’ to do it anyway"

I hold up one finger One change

What do you want to change? He looks down at the design, and his brow furrows as he takes in the shapes and the colors, the handcuffs and the guitar and the prickly thorns And I wonder if he also sees her ns a lot when it’s just uage e’re alone

I nod, and I start prepping loves up

Emily

It has been two days since I punched that asole in the tattoo shop, andin the subway tunnel by Central Park, and it’s souitar when my hand feels like it does But this tunnel is one of my favorite spots because the kids stop to listen tois soet to do it much, and I enjoy it even less But I like it when the kids look up at rin There’s so much promise in their faces It reminds ing today I don’t do it every time I play, but I aet, the et to take home with me Home is a relative ter on the cold cement floor of the tunnel, back a ways frouitar case open in front of me In it, there are soo and tossed in a fiver while I played "Bridge Over Troubled Water" Old ladies usually like that one They haven’t seen troubled waters

I’et more attention from men when I wear it It’s a short plaid skirt and a black ribbed short sleeve top that fits me like a second skin Ladies don’t seeot a lot of attention froo He was hot, I had to adh to fill a doorway and a head full of sandy-blond curls He towered over me when he stood up from behind that table, at least a head and shoulders taller than me Tattoos filled up all the empty space that used to be his forearms, and it was kind of hot He had lips painted on his left arm, and I wanted to ask him what those were Were they to reme the way the tattoo I wanted did?

I’d dropped n as I ran out of the shop, which pisses ht I had it clutched in one I’d almost expected the asole to followwhen I’d left hiain A towheaded boy stops in front of ular, and histo "Jesus Loves Me" Jesus doesn’t If He did, He wouldn’t have made me like I a withit tightly as she sings When the song is over, he drops his handful of pennies intothe felt as quietly as a whisper

I never say thank you or talk to the kids I don’t talk to the adults unless they ask , but I really don’t like to draw that much attention to myself Except, today, I need to draw attention to myself I had saved up three hundred dollars, which would pay for a place to sleep and that tattoo I thought I needed, but soht I’dasleep with it init in one I don’t knohy they didn’t takewith it in my arms, clutched to otten the tattoo yesterday It was a useless expense, but it wasti it toto free ? I’ll never be free

This city is hard It’slike where I came from But now it’s home I like the noise of the city and the bustle of the people I like the different ethnicities I’d never seen so ot here

A girl reaches her chubby hand to touchit in mine, instead Her hands are soft and a little daer was shoved in her ers while I make an O with my mouth

Herblow to her forearirl’s eyes immediately fill with tears You didn’t have to do that, I think She didn’tchild with her toward the subway and picks her up when she doesn’t h

I draw a small crowd between subway arrivals, and one man yells out, "Do you take requests?"

I nod, and keep on s with all I’m worth He calls out, "I think you should suck my dick, then" One of his buddies punches hie kid His ht him any manners I let my eyes roam over the crowd, and no one corrects hi in the World" by Matt Monroe The irony is lost on the jock, and they walk away as the train pulls in behind the off the train, so I switch to some more familiar tunes Money drops into my case, and I see a dollar float down I nod and s atpair of scuffed work boots steps up beside my case next I look at them for a minute and then up over the worn jeans and the blue T-shirt that’s stretched across broad shoulders And then I’ into the same sky-blue eyes as the other day My pick stus I wince His eyes narrow at me, but he can’t hear my mistake, can he? His head tilts to the side, and I turnandBut I don’t have anywhere else to go My three weeks at the shelter were up yesterday So, I have to find soht I look down intoelse So, I keep playing

Those bootsin front of me I scoot to the side and look everywhere but at his crossed criss-cross-applesauce style in front of e of his nose, and it makes s inmy body is one of them I say when I say where I say ho Just like in Pretty Woet to backhand uy leans on one butt cheek so he can pull out his wallet, and he throws in a twenty He doesn’t say anything, but he points to uitar and raises his brow I don’t knohat he wants, and he can’t tell e his presence, but he’s sitting with his knee an inch frouitar He points to uitar I realize I’ve stopped playing But he did put a twenty in my case, so I suppose I owe hiolo" I love that tune, and love playing it After a ether, and he points to his lips

I shakeEither he wantson my face I swipe the back ofto happen

He shakes his head quickly and retrieves a s, he writes

I have to concentrate really hard to read it, and there are too many distractions here in the tunnel, so I don’t want him to write anye hi, but I can’t read everything Or anything, sometiers like so