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Chapter 23
IT&039;S A SMALL WORLD SCIENTISTS HAVE PROVEN THIS
In 1967 a researcher naraes to a sers in Boston The Kansans could send the package to anyone they knew personally, who could then pass it on to anyone they knew personally, until a chain of friends between Kansas and Boston was uncovered
The packages arrived on target e nuet was 56, irees of my mom&039;s favorite actor) In our small world (small country, really) you&039;re only about six handshakes away from the perfect lover you haven&039;t met, the celebrity you most despise, and the person who innovated the phrase "Talk to the hand"
Now, if the world is that s that Jen&039;s and my paka-paka realizations were correct and the anti-client was a group of cool hunters, then I doubted there wereblack woht hands to shake
But first we had to go to the dry cleaner&039;s
We dropped off the shirt, pants, and bow tie so that they would all sparkle for their return trip to the store and my wounded refund I watched as the s
"You wear these clothes?"
"Yes"
Snip "With tags in thes"
"Yes"
Snip, snip, snip, pause "Your hands are purple?"
"Yes"
"Can you fix this jacket?" Jen interrupted our scintillating conversation, which led to a longer pause, full of head-shaking and sad expressions I took the opportunity to sweep up the tags with
"No Cannot fix"
She shoved it back into her bag, folding it carefully for reasons that were purely symbolic: respect for the dead
"Don&039;t worry Hunter I&039;ll see what I can do"
The ain
Central Park, like the rest of New York, is part of a grid systeanic blobs, triangles, winding shapes that follow rivers But Central Park is a precise rectangle, stuck onto the irregular isle of Manhattan like a label on a shrink-wrapped piece of meat
Near the bottom of the label, in the fine print, a very cool tribein circles around a | DJ playing ancient disco without irony
Technically they&039;re not even part of the cool pyraards, trapped in a tiuys in Kiss T-shirts But much cooler They date to the early years of the Aovern in the country, unexpectedly creating the modern culture of boards, skates, and scooters
That was a long tio They are so ancient, so yesterday, that they&039;re totally cutting edge
And every Saturday, Hiro Wakata, Lord of All Things heels, shows up here, practicing his double reverses and cool hunting up a storm
Normally I kept a respectful distance fro to poach on a fellow hunter&039;s territory, so it had beenwheels to my feet makes me less cool, not more) But Hiro was the obvious first handshake in search of the anti-client In his late twenties, he&039;s pretty old for a cool hunter, knows everyone, and has been rolling since he learned to walk
He was easy to spot a a sleeveless hooded white sweatshirt, sweeping fast and close to the ragged edge of spectators He&039;d beco was a second language, but he spoke it beautifully (He was also fluent in motorcycles, electric micro-scooters, and mountain boards)
I waved as he zoomed by, and on his next pass Hiro broke out of the circle, the ruravel as he crossed the unswept outer ring of asphalt He slid to an ice-hockey stop in front of us
"Yo, Hunter, new hair?"
"Yeah I&039;uise these days"
"Cool Like the hands, too" He spun around the other way to face Jen rather than turn his head a few degrees; a life on wheels had addicted hiht? I liked what you said at thethe other day Very cool"
I saw her suppress an eye roll For a group of trendsetters, our response to her was annoyingly predictable, I guess "Thanks"
"Mandy was so pissed Ha! You roll?"
"Not well enough to join you guys," Jen said The couple passing in front of us - her skating backward, hi their grip on each other&039;s hands Jen and I whistled together
"Don&039;t sweat it, coain "So, what&039;s up?"
"I ondering if you could help me find someone, Hiro She&039;s a skater"
He took a slow spin, a happy king surveying his doht place"
Jen pulled out the printed photo "This is her"
He looked at it for a second and nodded, suddenly soedtime Not since the split"
"The split?"
"Yeah, like ten years ago I was just a kid then, back when the cops hassled us all the tiestured at the DJ, ensconced within four stacks of speakers, two turntables, and a sputtering generator "Used to be Wick&039;s booot busted She was an original, started this club when she was thirteen"
I took the deep, pleasing breath of being right - she was an Innovator
"Her name&039;s Wick?" Jen asked "That short for &039;Wicked, by any chance?"
Hiro rolled from side to side in amusement "Not at all Short for Mwadi Wickersha out here anyned up with" He named a certain skate company associated with the in-line revolution
"Because she didn&039;t want any corporate ties," Jen said
Hiro shrugged "She never said anything about selling out Hell, I was all logoed up in my half-pipe days, but that never bothered her The split wasn&039;t about sponsorship; it was about going in-line" He lifted one foot, revealing the four colinear wheels of his blade "Mas all about classic skates, which is what the originals wore We kept it up until the early nineties, after everyone else had switched Two-by-two or death, you know?"
Jen&039;s eyes widened "You mean, this is all about what kind of roller skates to wear?" she cried
Hiro rolled backward, spreading his hands "What&039;s about what kind of skates to wear?"
"We&039;re not sure," I said inSo, you haven&039;t seen her lately Do you kno to find her?"
He shook his head "No, it was a sad thing Beautiful skater, but she couldn&039;t stand to go in-line And it&039;s not like it was soive us free blades and better sound equipment Maybe do a photo shoot or two"
"You said it was a split," Jen said "So more people than just Wick left?"
"Yeah, a few Butback The whole deal was just for one suh She like vanished"
"Any of these guys?" She produced the other pictures
"No, none of them were splitters But I know him" He pointed at NASCAR Man "That&039;s Futura Futura Garas out here?"
"Never But I know hiner" "He designs skates?"
Hiro shook his head "No, azines"
Chapter 24
WE HEADED BACK TO MY HOUSE TO DO RESEARCH I COULD FEEL
us getting closer to the anti-client, the degrees of separation dropping like Becky Hammon&039;s free throws