How Long 'Til Black Future Month?

At dawn, the narrator stands on a rooftop in New York City and sings “to the cityscape beyond” until someone tells him to be quiet (14). At this point, he exits the roof, though hesitantly, because he suddenly hears a “dissonant, gathering growl” (15).

He joins Paulo, a smoker with “permanent puppy eyes,” who takes him to breakfast and tries to convey his worry about a “breathing” he keeps hearing (15). The narrator has trouble paying attention to Paulo’s worry though, because he is so excited to be eating breakfast in a café like “normal” people do (16). He was disowned by his mother and has no home or steady income, so dining with Paulo in public is a treat. Despite a moment of fear when a cop walks in, he feels comforted by the fresh food and patter of quiet conversation. After leaving the café, he finds some paint and starts to “paint the city” (17). While he is painting, he hears the breathing Paulo was referring to, so he starts painting “breathing-holes” across the city (18).

The next time he meets Paulo, the narrator is starving and exhausted. Paulo tells him the “city will die” if the narrator does not intervene on its behalf, that “he is the catalyst, whether of strength or destruction,” a statement which leaves the narrator bewildered since he has never been important to anyone so far in his life (19). He tells Paulo there is a difference between “being alive” and “living” and that he is interested in helping the city only because he is interested in living (20). He asks Paulo to tell him “what to do” in order to save the city (20). Paulo teaches him that cities eventually reach a point of unity—a point where they break away from the surrounding geography and become their own powerful, breathing entity. Paulo says the narrator is the “midwife” for New York City’s impending birth, and that the narrator needs to be aware that New York City has enemies trying to keep it from growing into an independent entity (21).

Back at Paulo’s, the narrator washes, sleeps, eats, and tries to make it apparent to Paulo that he is willing to have sex with him. The next morning, he heads to the library to hang out and read for the day. While there, he sees two cops eyeing him and thinks he sees one of the cop’s shadows unnaturally “stretch” (24). Afraid of what this might mean, he sprints away only to eventually trip and realize that something resembling “a Mega Cop” is chasing him (26). Dodging six lanes of traffic and causing all sorts of confusion, the narrator watches as the Mega Cop is shred to pieces behind him.

Although he is nauseous and physically spent, the narrator only lays still for a moment before he feels compelled to move. Suddenly, he is in Central Park—though unaware of how he got there. He feels miffed by the fact that nearby cops aren’t pursuing him, and in awe of the fact that he can now feel the city “contract” (30). He knows now that all Paulo said is “true” (29). He fights New York City’s enemies using his physical strength as well as several of New York City’s features, eventually wounding but not killing them. He sees Paulo coming toward him, smoking and full of “admiration” (32). This admiration is especially important to the narrator because his mother and her lover never made him feel admired or needed.

Fast forward “[f]ifty years later” and the narrator is now “rich” and searching for another “singer” of the city to help save New York City (32-33).