Heat Break

The first night was accompanied by unrelenting, immobilizing heat. Having to drink 2 40s of Coors Light to get to sleep in my brand new bed, I numbed the experience of adapting to the sounds, smells and sights of this hulk of a building. After work, the following day, I made sure to buy an air conditioner. Supplies were limited, and many of the retailers were price-gouging, but I managed to purchase a hefty unit which would fit in the deep sleeve under the window of my bedroom. I then raced from union square to 125th Street on the express, to the oven of my true first apartment.
The delivery between 8 and 10pm became more of a fantasy by 10:45 and I opened another Coors on the terrace. I listened to Hot 97 on my roommate’s portable stereo, sipped my 40—covered with sweat and beer, I made my first attempt to blend. In fact, it was more like basking in my recent accomplishment of the job and the apartment in Manhattan. To any sane outsider, I was more basting than basking, however. The temperature inside the apartment was over 100-degrees, it was nearing midnight and the air conditioner was presumably somewhere between 14th and 122nd street. Several futile phone calls to the retailer on 14th yielded no more than the store hours. As it looked like I was going to spend my second night of true freedom saturated in sweat and beer, an unmarked white box truck slinked into an open parking spot across Lexington avenue; seconds later my phone rang.

After generously tipping and gratuitously thanking the deliverymen, I affixed the air conditioner into the sleeve using nothing more than a swiss army knife. Cutting through the rubbery adhesive surrounding the spacers was trying to slice through a Pirelli with a penknife, but youthful exuberance and light beer prevailed. Soon, the modern LG, tapped into the decades-old circuitry of 1990 Lexington Avenue, was pulling amps and pushing cool air. With gaps on either side of the machine wide enough to fit a family of mice and their pet cockroaches through, the heavy, stagnant city air could commute to-fro my bedroom and my terrace. The air conditioner had a twofold affect: curing the air to ease my body and drowning out the incessant sirens to ease my mind.

That Friday the heat finally broke.