Bennett Solomon is waiting for me on the Belmont el platform, crouching on a bench, bobbing up and down under the heat lamps. He’s wearing earmuffs and has two tambourines slung across his back. He waves at me and jumps down. “I hear Paul McCartney’s getting back together with the Beatles.”
“Well, if it was a little warmer, I’d get out there,” he says, moving his hand up and down his throat. “It would help if I was in a club or something too. It’s not always easy to do that, so you do the best you can under the circumstances.”
He’s got a-you and me sister in his hands.
A woman across from us smiles and gives Solomon the thumbs-up.
It’s a long road to a feeling that
Now it’s here, now it’s real,
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It’s cold on the Clark and Division platform, and there aren’t many people around. Solomon blows into his hands, then starts singing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” again. He beats a tambourine against his hip, improvising a little with the rhythm. His voice echoes through the dark station.
