mirabelle won and lost

Tags

columbia, jan, jonathan, mirabella, s.the river and i

s. was in the monday movements class. Renard had placed

him at 1.1. after a few months, that year, 1971. mirabelle was

on his left in the front at 1.2..

learning the movements with a beautiful girl at your side was a

memorable experience because everytime the dances

required looking into the eyes of your neighbor or simply

facing left, a thrill went through him. it wasn’t a weakness for

women. mirabelle had something very special, a beauty

based on a fine essence. Maybe also the intensity of the class

fermented some orgones. And it was mutual. he knew.

one day after movements they happened to leave the

foundation at the same time. out the door together and

walking down the street towards lexington. they turned their

heads towards each other. mirbelle was 18, s. was ten years

her senior.
“coffee?”
“why not?”
**************************************************
s. was still going to columbia university and living on grant

money and whatever he could pick up doing odd jobs, mostly

carpentry or indoor painting.

the affair with jan simons had ended a few months after

christmas when somehow he was the ‘santa claus’ at the

simons’ house in chappaqua, buying expensive presents for

everyone.

s. had really made himself at home. jan mentioned once that

jack had complained that s. was demolishing his liquor

cabinet and thinning out a voluminous wine collection. he

thought they were going to get married.

but it wasn’t to be. he had been there for the birth of anyikem

and had served a purpose which charlotte, jan’s mother had

devised. charlotte had shown an avid interest in the ‘work’ and

was soon to have an interview with l.p.. so, s. was sure that he

was “in like flynn”.

the gods must be crazy. especially the gods of love.

s. was surely in love with jan and took the rejection of his

proposal rather hard. and then suddenly, out of the blue

comes mirabelle who sends him sailing into seventh heaven.

now adopted by yet another family with weekends at their

house in new jersey, romping in the woods. making love in

the springtime air with all the forest juices rising. bathing

together naked in cold creeks, laying together in blissful

embraces on the fresh green moss, enchanted, in a bubble.

it was a time to ignore the pressures at school and in the ‘work’

and concentrate on what is good and wonderful about life…

love.

then, one night julie called from san francisco.

“there are too many children for me to handle here. i am

going to put jonathan in a foster home unless you can take

him.”

“picking jonathan up at the airport”

s’s father paid the plane fare and jonathan arrived at the

airport in early summer. at that time s. was sleeping in a bunk

bed at dr. shermans apartment downtown. sherman wasn’t

happy with the idea of suddenly having a kid around, so s.

began to search for an apartment for about $50.00 a month

which he could manage.

these rent controlled five story walk ups did have a slow

turnover. rothenberg was walking around the neighborhood

near the foundation offering $100 reward, finders fee, to all the supers of

these old brownstones on the eastside. all at once he got

calls from three different supers. none of them would take the

reward. john had an extra two to share. martin f. got one and

s. got the other.

so when jonathan arrived s. had a place for them. that was

good. it was the top floor on 62nd st. between second and

first avenues. what you call ‘railroad’ apartments. the bath

was in the kitchen and had a metal cover. then there was a

bedroom on either side.

mirabelle and jonathan got along fine and the summer was a

very pleasant one going from city to country and enjoying the

best of both worlds. jonathan was happy. s. took mirabelle’s

younger brother to a few apartment renovations while

mirabelle and jonathan did things together through the day.

unfortunately, this turned out to put a damper on the whirlwind

love affair, (everyone was talking). unfortunately the change

obviated the necessity to stop courses at columbia after three

years. that was hard. not to get a degree was going to be an

obstacle to getting a good job as an art director. now he had

the experience of 45 credits in studio courses, three years of

english culminating in a graduate class that met in the

apartment of the head of the english department. s. had made

notable strides under humphries’s tutelage. but could he get a

real job without the BA?

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