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.Apparently, I am incredibly unquotable.I actually had a reporter tellme that when I tried to give him the socio-historical dynamics thatcontributed to some of the structural racism and the recent events onLong Island.Then again, he was probably just pissed because I accusedhim of betraying of the irenic glory days of his paper.I mean, yellowjournalists have always been on the war-mongering, karma-suckingside, but these days, even newspapers that used to try and improve theworld just want a bigger scoop and a meaner headline. Funny, I would have called that a con. That too, Adelman agreed without taking offense. But I wastotally right on the structural racism.That s the problem with reporters:they want the easy answers or the popular ones, not the best ones.Ormaybe it s that their editors want the easy answers, but when you getinto questions of race and anger and blame, the answers aren t easy.With a flinch, Miguel turned and started walking down the hall asfast as he could without looking like he was running.They could grab ahot dog, leaving him to escape in five or ten minutes.If he had to listento a lecture on race and the police force and how everyone hated himfor shooting an unarmed black man& well, he was going to beshooting an unarmed Jewish man, which would be a lot harder toexplain, since this wasn t a dark alley and Adelman wasn t waving avery real-looking cap gun.The minute the outside door opened, the heat and the smell ofasphalt slapped him.The heat was miserable.When he was a kid and itwas this hot, Miguel would lie on the ground with his shirt off so thathe could soak up the cool of the earth.In New York, the groundseemed to soak up the heat until it rose up like steam off the streets.Ignoring the physical discomfort, Miguel headed for the street wherethe hot dog vender usually set up.Adelman chased after him, breaking into a trot to keep up. You re a little on the quiet side.Are you always this quiet?64 | Lyn Gala Sometimes I m laconic.Adelman laughed.However, when Miguel tried to head for thehot dog vendor, Adelman caught his arm and started pulling him north.Planting his feet, Miguel shook his arm to free himself. Whatever youcame down here to say, just say it.Adelman looked up at him, studying him with great care.His eyeshad some unreadable expression that made Miguel uncomfortable. You want to talk about this here? Adelman asked, his voice soft andserious. I don t know.What  this are you talking about? If you want totalk about your sudden personality shift and admit to taking a few toomany dexies, we can do that here.Instead of taking offense, Adelman laughed. No way.Look, Iknow I can be all kinds of fercockt, but trust me, I never do drugs.I mnot even sure what they d do to me.Yesterday, I was emotionallyoverwhelmed by all that pain, and yeah, I was not the nicest person.Completely and entirely not nice because I think I did things&.Adelman waved a hand like he was trying to disperse a bad smell. Never mind.It s just that this is probably closer to the real me.Itaught this morning.You d think that summer school at the universitywould be all about the despair& people miserable about having to goto classes while their friends are off doing something summery.But it stotally the opposite.Summer is when the kids come who are almostdone& who have this drive and energy and determination that justabout overloads the circuits. You re high on kids? Miguel summarized.Oh yeah, this onehad serious fucking mental health issues.Adelman gave him a bright smile. Maybe.Fewer side effectsthan meth.So, the restaurant is this way. Without waiting, Adelmanstarted down the street, detouring around a patrol officer with a cuffedsuspect, and doing it with such boyish energy that the guy gettingarrested had a look of utter murder on his face.When life was going toshit, there was nothing worse than being stuck around a happy person.Miguel got that.Breaking into a quick jog to catch up, Miguel fell into step besideAdelman. You know, I wasn t kidding.I m not going to talk to youUrban Shaman | 65about the case. While Adelman had slipped down on his list ofsuspects, he wasn t completely off it yet.Considering how muchmoney he made off his books, it was odd that he still lived in one of theworst neighborhoods in the city.Either he was as eccentric as hepretended, or he had an agenda.That agenda might be to develop somesort of credibility as an urban shaman, or it might be that it gave himgood access to victims.While Miguel s gut instinct was to trustAdelman, that didn t mean Miguel believed it.His gut had beenspectacularly wrong in the past. No way.I m not going to put you in an awkward spot that way.Ido know that I was way out of line and rambling and freaking you outpretty bad. I was not freaked out. Right.Not freaked out, just trying to decide who in the room hadslipped off the reality train.Got it. Adelman nodded happily.Narrowing his eyes in warning, Miguel glared at Adelman, butthe man truly did not even seem to notice the danger. Look, I just want to have lunch and maybe try introducingmyself again before I go jumping all over you.I do that sometimes.Adelman shrugged. It s just part of my charm. And what part of that is charming? Yeah, Miguel shouldprobably accept the tacit apology, but he wasn t in the mood to bereasonable, not after getting dragged out of the precinct and poked overthe race issue.Adelman just made a disgusted  uf sound [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]