Heels of Steel by Barbara Kavovit

Author:Barbara Kavovit
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2019-04-12T19:04:20+00:00

Chapter 29

Bridget called in sick to work the next day. Then she hopped on the 2 train and headed for the Bronx. Back when Steele Construction still existed, she would have gathered everyone into her oversize conference room, around the gleaming twelve-foot oak table built big enough to seat all of her estimators, her VP of construction, PMs and field supers. Then they would have spent the day reviewing the budget, rehearsing their presentation and figuring out the best approach to building this monstrosity. But now? She only had one person she wanted to talk to: Danny Schwartz.

She had to go to him. He’d been there through everything and she knew it just wouldn’t feel right unless he was part of this job. He wouldn’t take her calls, didn’t respond to email. It had been so long since she’d even seen his face. She had tried to keep tabs on him through her mother—making sure he was okay—but her mom said he would hardly see her, either. That he wasn’t around the neighborhood like he used to be.

Bridget knew she was going to have to show up on his doorstep in person if she wanted to hash this out.

As she stepped out of the subway station into the bright midday sun, Bridget took a moment to orient herself. She could never get over how different things were when she came back to the old neighborhood. Her mother had moved to Florida after Bridget and Dylan had moved back out, so it had been nearly two years since she’d been back in the hood. Everything looked worn out and smaller than her memories. The park was strewn with litter and graffiti and not as green as she remembered; the brick wall that she used to lean against while making out with her first boyfriend had been turned into a car wash with flickering neon lights. Here was the street where she was knocked off her brand-new bike, a gang of neighborhood kids demanding that she give them a dollar or the bike itself. She refused either, standing her ground, tears and snot running down her face, until one of the shopkeepers came out and chased them all off. Sal’s Pizza place, Luigi’s deli, The Tasty Bake, with its handmade cannoli and home to the four bald men who never left the front stoop, wearing sleeveless tees, gray trousers and black belts...all gone. Transformed into bodegas, check-cashing places and nail salons.

The public pool that used to open every Memorial Day and close on Labor Day was now filled with dirt and covered in pavement. For a minute Bridget stopped and stood there, watching her child-self do laps down the long, murky blue pool.

This neighborhood had been dangerous and smothering and unpredictable, as sticky and binding as tar, and she’d spent most of her childhood wondering if she’d ever make it out. But, she mused as she turned the corner onto Danny’s block, it had made her. This is where she learned to fight like hell and work until she dropped and to never take shit from anyone.

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