The Steel Mill

Delroy Thornton worked in a steel mill outside the village of Merricksburg for the last twenty years. He stood six foot four and muscular with a wooden face cut in deep lines from the heat of the blast furnaces. He was a quiet man except for when drunk. In his earlier years he was known to throw someone across a bar for looking at him sideways or drive his car into a telephone pole and take swing at a police officer. Age had put out most of his fire as if it had burned away in the heat of the mill and the last ember glowed inside just enough to keep him alive.

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Friday - Lost keys

As it was beautiful on Friday I got up from writing and took my bicycle out for a ride. I thought I would cycle down to the Verrazano Bridge. That was usually just the start of a day ride last summer. I went the back way out of Red Hook towards the Smith + 9th subway station.

There's a block just past 9th where a scene from Goodfellas was filmed. It's where Jimmy Conway tries to get Karen Hill to go into the other store for some dresses and she gets spooked. You know where he makes that hand gesture for her to go in?

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