The Notebooks of Honora Gorman

NOTEBOOK 2

B  ook the Second – I live in the Land of the Flying Trains!
The 7 trains (lucky seven), as they round into the elevated 46th Street station in Queens, appear like flying trains as they come and go, especially at night when they’re all lit up, like magical, fairytale trains. The 7 line subway station, at 46th/Bliss Street, in Sunnyside. What a happy sounding place!

Honora changed the period to an exclamation mark. First lines were always so important. She sat at her new table in her new apartment in her new neighborhood with her new notebook spread open to the first page.

She was sure she had made the right decision. Though she would have preferred a more romantic or poignant catalyst – instead of the apartment below her nearly catching on fire – she had decided to move and was happy for the change.

Goodbye to living in the Theater District, goodbye vibrant street life, goodbye Greek Orthodox Church with its incense and bells, goodbye restaurant job. Goodbye frequent strolls through her neighborhood beauty, Central Park.

Hello Queens, hello new jobs (to be determined). Hello seeing the city from a distance, another way of experiencing it. Hello and I love you Sunnyside Gardens! A tree-lined historical neighborhood of brick row houses with landscaped courtyards between them and small front gardens, window boxes filled with flowers, and potted plants on brick steps. Quaint. Built in the 1920s, a period she loved for so many reasons. (“Not least of all the clothing,” said Honey).

Her second-floor windows looked out on tall leafy trees and the charming row houses, some with slate roofs! There was definitely more space, more quiet – good for writing.

And when she wanted noise and excitement and museums and classes, the city was just a quick ride away.