Spike the Inwood Kid

Spike the Inwood Kid is a journalistic novella about F. Michael Christopher who grew up in the Inwood section of Manhattan. Spike went to the local catholic school, indulged in 1970's Times Square and soon found himself heavily involved in drug use. Inwood is the same neighborhood Jim Carroll wrote about in Basketball diaries. Excerpt: I knew Times Square was not far, I heard the stories, once on a class trip I witnessed a door opening to a massage parlor. The women were on sale; half nude in cheap lingerie, red thick lipstick advertised, like faded paint around an overused tunnel. I was a boy what did I know about sadness.We lived in uptown Manhattan a place called Inwood, a bar infested neighborhood which is the last stop of the A train, 207th street. Times Square was on 42nd street, only about eight stops away. Not having much money I would sneak on the train to reserve my funds for what awaited me in the naked promise land.The train station was a long ominous tunnel that stretched from 207th street to Isham Street. Imagine a vagina with no end. It was creepy and gloomy station with ripped beer ads offering us a higher life. The glass enclosed clerk was housed dead smack in the middle of the station, he was the brother of one of my friends, he always looked bored. Like a fish in a bowl. Even then, I thought what a tragic life to live.