Voices in Time

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I finished the Mickey Mouse and it came out beautiful, just the way I planned. Then I started work on another car with a desert scene. And Mono finished his piece, and then we all came together to start doing the rest. I was so tired. The first night, when we started doing it, I was energy packed. I was only drinking soda; Mono and Slave were drinking beer and stuff. But I was only drinking soda and eating crackers, and it was giving me energy, and I could have painted all night. Since I got chased that night, a lot of that energy went into my feet. And with all that worry, I lost a lot of energy, and I could piece, but I couldn’t piece as fast and as nice. So it was late when we got to the last two cars. And we said, “Let’s leave them.” But Mono said, “We’re doing ten cars. We came here for ten cars and we’re doing them. Fabulous Five!” So we did the Christmas cars. They were coming out nice but I was getting tired. And the thing is, they went inside and slept and left me out there by myself, piecing. Lazy bums, they were all high and I finished the two cars. But I finally finished, and then I knocked on the window and I said, “Yo, Mono, it’s finished.”

We got out of the lay-up at six o’clock in the morning. At seven o’clock the lay-up was gonna pull out. So I went home, didn’t sleep. Cleaned up just a little bit. Got my camera and went back to the station. At about seven o’clock I got there to Brooklyn Bridge, and guys are coming up to me and they’re shouting, “Oh man! Oh man!” And I said, “What’s the matter with you?” And they said, “Oh man, I’ve seen it!” And I said, “What have you seen?” And they said, “A whole train!” All the writers were there for early morning rush. And they said, “It’s bad style, Lee!” And I said, “Oh, shit, where is it?” And they said, “It went to the Bronx.” So I got on the next train and I said, “I’m going after it. I don’t want anybody with me.”

It was a cold day. It was two weeks before Christmas. And we were at Intervale on the Five and Two waiting for that train. There were two fine girls waiting at the train station. And then the train was coming. And I said, “Look at that train.” Like you could see barely on the side of it, all the colors flashing out toward the sun. The sun was right on them. And I said, “There it goes!” I got out my camera and it was coming closer and I said, “There it goes!” And it’s coming closer with the cars swinging. And I said, “It’s coming! It’s coming!” And the girls are saying, “What’s coming? What’s coming?” And I said, “Look,” and they said, “Oh my God!” And the first cars came in like a roaring horse and I said, “Look at it! Look at it!” And I was going so crazy I forgot to take pictures. And Devil, who was with me, said, “The pictures!” So I started taking pictures but I only grabbed like four cars. And then the train was pulling out, so then I jumped on. And I looked back at the girls, and they were just standing there with their mouths open. And it was like crazy. Like you could see the reflection in their eyes.

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