At the Dyckman Pier, BK and VJ go to the fried fish and chips stand. ND approaches the small beach, where he meets the unnamed junkie they briefly spoke with at the marina. It is only ND's guess that the man is a junkie - this is based on the tracks on his arms and his non-stop, unprompted monologue. Although the junkie answers no specific questions, his comments on the waterfront aren't without a certain relevance.

JUNKIE

All the toilet paper an shit be goin by and someone throw somebody in first to splash all the shit open and then everybody'd jump in an' swim across. Back in the early seventies an'shit - mid-seventies or whatever.

ND	Yeah? You been livin' round here a long time?

JUNKIE

Yeah. All my life over here. I seen a lot of dead bodies in here, too.

ND	Yeah, really?

JUNKIE

After the winter. We seen a young kid one time - grabbed him - tied a rope around his neck and we held him there - every time boats were goin' by his head was hittin' the rocks. My friend went in and tied the rope around him - fuckin held him there til the police came. Then I seen a lady - a girl - a blond-haired woman - she mustn'ta been in there that long. She was still preserved, ya know. We was playin little league baseball. Then, all of a sudden this kid says there was a body over there by the Columbia - where Columbia's crew goes out. I don't know if you been by Columbia's -

ND	Yeah, the crew boathouse there.

JUNKIE

Yeah, it was over there.

ND	They have a little cove there.

JUNKIE

Yeah. She somehow came around there with the tide. That's where they found the body of a girl, a police officer's wife over here. I don't know how she - he lived in City Island. So, he musta - I don't know how the fuck - maybe he dumped her off out there. She wound up all the way over here. They found her body after a long time. He was in jail anyway for a couple of different things. And then, he married another police officer. He married a woman police officer there. She's got - he was in the Bronx police station - and he ended up rapin' the girl. He moved in with this police officer woman who had a daughter - he raped her. He's in jail now - but, they never got him for the murder of his wife. I couldn't believe that shit. He was in bad shape. I don't know what was wrong with that fuckin' guy. It's an old case now - maybe five years ago - four or five years ago. There was no body so, they couldn't get him. He got in trouble for takin' her money from her bank account. Withdrawin' money from her account an' shit.

ND	I think I heard that story.

JUNKIE

A guy from City Island. Lanetti. Louis Lanetti or whatever. Italian guy. Then, he ended up goin' out with his partner - woman - and she - I don't know what happened with her - I'm sure they got rid of her off the force. Guy was a sick man.

ND	I see a duck over here now.

JUNKIE

Yeah. And the blue claw crabs get big. In the next month, you'll see some big. An' you got the soft shell crabs on top of them - the other one - protectin the other one. An' if you go along here at nighttime when the water - the salt water marsh - over there, you got a marsh - when the water comes all the way up, they're all against the wall there. All along - you go along with a flashlight at nighttime, you'll see them. They stand there. This guy comes around with a big old - this guy he's got the crabbin nets out. I'm tellin ya, he's got some so big, they don't even fit in the pickle bucket. Them buckets there. There's some huge friggin' blue - Jersey blue crabs - or whatever they call them. You see the soft shell ones? The double heavies? Man! And he uses the softshell for bait and catches the big stripers with them. He knows his stuff. And in November, he uses chicken livers - and he catches the stripers that are like - I'm talkin about up to here. Off the sewer. You know, where the sewer used to run - the hot water it was like chum - all the water dat was comin' outta the sewer there. Right by the baseball field - the lower field there - right across from the Columbia yard - right across from Columbia's -

ND	Boathouse.

JUNKIE

Boathouse. There on the other side of the baseball field - at nighttime I used to come out and watch him. Man, he'd be out there with just a chicken liver with a piece of string tied around it - like a piece of sock he tied on there - and float that shit out - and they used to come up to the top and grab that - and with no weight on there and his fishin' rod - once the sucker took it right in the water. It was too big. He's sittin there and he's got his fuckin' beers in his chair an' he's sittin' there and - now he puts somethin' over it. But, you watch and them suckers - when he pulls it, they snap on top of the water - striped bass. When they hit - you see that tail jumpin'! Whoa! This is a big one. Every year - every year he's over there. This guy he knows his shit real good. He knows when to do it. On the outgoing tide he catches them. This is in November and he's still catching 'em - in November. He caught one with the tag on it - and he got so drunk he lost the fuckin' tag. He was runnin aroun' showin' everybody. You're s'posed to measure the size o' the fish and then throw it back. Then, ya put ya thing in the lottery or somethin'. And ya get from five dollas to a thousand dollas. But he lost the tag. I knew he was gonna lose that sucker. He was showin' it off too much. It was a little red thing that spun around - I guess - in the water with the fish. It was nice though. I remember that. I remember the fish he caught when he caught it. Ya know, this guy caught a black fish over here. So, ya get different kind of fish comin' by. There's a lotta different kinda fish. Tommy cods - there're a lotta them. The striped bass are big suckers - in the other side - not the Hudson. I'm sure there's bigger ones in the Hudson. But that Harlem River there - they come through there - they come close, real close, right next to the rocks, lookin' for their - what happens is a lotta ya small killies - or whatever ya wanna call em - they come in with the tide with the salt water marsh. Ya see dem breakin' inna water all da time - schoolsa dem. Because you can catch dem - a lotta dem - wit' bread - the killies. And he uses dem as bait also - hooks dem on. He wouldn't really buy worms. I don't know he don't use no sandworms or bloodworms ever - like everyone else does. He has his own way of doin' it. And he chums wit' dog food. He takes cans o' dog food an' chops 'em like dat an he lets da stuff from em go down to da water.

ND	So, you come down often to the waterfront?

JUNKIE

Yeah, I come down here - he comes down here, he's always down here. He's not on dis side. He's - like I said - on the Innwood Park side. I never seen that duck there. Yeah. He looks like he's by himself. He might be sick. There was a girl over here. We had the big ducks - or whatever - in the park over there where the green - like in the marsh area - there's a lotta stuff growin' in there -

ND	The reeds an' stuff.

JUNKIE

Yeah. An' she usedta help da ducks - there's a lotta stuff in there - there's twigs an' ev'rythin'. This girl - someone took the eggs that were hatched and they killed the female duck - she ended up committin' suicide - she killed herself. She left a note in the house an' she killed 'erself. Right down by da rocks. She was walkin' in the water - thinkin' that this plastic bag - that the duck was under the plastic bag gettin' st [transcript section deleted by computer] ovin' too much there - maybe he got sick on somethin'. On the other side, there's a lotta dem over dere.

ND	People still go swimmin' in here an' stuff?

JUNKIE

I don't see 'em swimmin' too much - not really, not here. Not really. On the other side - the other beach area - ya see em. A beach area like this over by the trestle - the drawbridge - over down at the other end down there. Years ago - my mother and father usedta swim in dere years and years ago. When it was nice - tell me about it. But, not too many people swim in here now. We used to cut school and all - a whole bunch of us - and go swimmin'. It was like that. An' the water was cold still - we usedta go in there - it's damn cold. This is not too clean here.

ND

Nope.

JUNKIE

Not at all. I mean, ya could really see the difference. [indicates the duck] He ain't gonna find nuttin' ta eat over here.

ND	I'm gonna go up and join these guys for a bite.

Modified December 23, 1997