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I thought of getting back onto the West Side Elevated Highway, but instead I drove south through Washington Heights and Harlem, down into the Upper West Side. I was passing the enormous building site for the new concert hall on Columbus Avenue when I realized I was only a few blocks from where she lived.
I had only a minute to decide what I wanted to do. I turned onto West Sixty-Second Street, thinking that if I didn’t see a place to park, I would just go on home – that was the kind of game I played all the time. It was not a fortuitous place for parking, but I saw a space almost immediately, not fifty yards from Central Park. I backed in, turned off the engine, and climbed out right away, hoping I would be at her door before I lost my nerve.
I was on fire with a willingness to humil
