Refreshing the Supply

I discovered stewardesses. The airlines put them up in the high-rise condos that lined Queens Boulevard, refreshing the supply daily. Once you cleaned up (and I cleaned up nice), all you had to do was make your way over to the 5 Burros after 11 and ask one if she wanted another margarita. They were perfume-soaked sitting ducks, bored, restless, desperate for someone to listen to them about annoying passengers, heartless pilots, mothers who always phoned too early or too late. Guess who was all ears.

—from Mark Swartz's "Accent Reduction" in the upcoming anthology Forgotten Borough

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Above: "Forest Hills Sunset 4/11/09" by beau-dog on flickr