hundred billion castaways

dinner at jg melon's with lee. (i had never had their burger.) we sat outside, on the corner of 76 and 3rd.

midway through the meal, a team of police cars converged a few buildings up, on the same block on 3rd. their sirens were off, but their lightbars rotated ominously. they remained in the middle of the street for a while; we asked a waiter what was going on.

'someone jumped off that building,' he said. 'from the fourth floor.'

i got up to rubberneck. i saw that the pavement in front of the building in question was squared off with police tape which was tied to two police cars parked in the street. several other police cars were clustered around. many people, cops and passersby, were clustered around - cops inside and outside the square, voyeurs outside.

the lightbars kept going, like lighthouses. i sat back down.

neither of us recalled hearing an ambulance. it seemed like a suicide really did take place a few doors down. while we were eating bacon cheeseburgers.

i think that's the closest ive been to a death in my life.