Two Sisters

For Jane and Lorraine

I met Jane the night I stole her leather jacket.

It was my first night at the College Point Malba group of Alcoholic's Anonymous. We were pushing chairs back in to the tables at the end of the meeting. We each had leather jackets on the backs of our chairs, but I must have gotten disoriented, because I thought I was taking the leather jacket from the back of my chair. I got in the car of the church parking lot, said to myself, you know, the sleeves seem a little short. Does AA cause that? Collateral damage for trying to get sober? I drove home, across the highway where the Cross Island Parkway ends and the Van Wyck Expressway begins (or vice versa), and my wife says, "Where'd you get that leather jacket?" I realized it was Jane's. I was so new that I didn't know her last name, or phone number. So I got in the car, raced back to the church, which was locked and dark. Jane wore my leather jacket home.

For the next few days, I showed up at every meeting Jane might attend, and eventually, w…