Chasing Shadows Read Free Page A

doing in a place like this?"
    Shelving Fairy laughs and nods her head towards
the monument. "Enjoying public art."
    "Me too."
    "So..." My dark haired friend looks around,
trying for casual, but achieving paranoid. "Wanna walk with
me?"
    I shrug. "Sure. Where to?"
    "That way." Shelving Fairy points North and
West.
    "Awesome. I love that way."
    Shelving Fairy smiles and starts off at a fast
clip. "Good lets go."
    I scramble to match her pace. For several
minutes the two of us walk quickly in silence. We go west one block
and north the next, then west, then north and so on until Grant
Park is a calm, still memory. I am torn between feeling an awkward
desire to think of something to say, and trying to be grateful for
the kind friendship where silence is acceptable. Except it isn't,
is it? Have I really known Shelving Fairy long enough for this?
Have we bonded so well stocking books that we can now enjoy this
easy silence? Which isn't really easy anyway, as I am exerting an
embarrassing and considerable effort to modulate my breathing so as
not to sound like an asthmatic Saint Bernard.
    "Oh fuck it." I say, breaking the silence. I
stop where I am, and lean against the wall of a closed drug
store.
    "What? What is it?" Shelving Fairy
asks.
    After a few breaths and some phlegmy coughs I
light up a Camel. "You still here? I figured you'd have made it to
Canada by now. Why'd you stop?"
    Shelving Fairy looks guilty. "Sorry. I know
it's... I know I seem weird right now, but I had to get out of the
park."
    I shrug. "Yeah I got that part." I say. "So we
still need to hurry? Running makes you look guilty you know."
Shelving Fairy laughs a little. I notice how white her teeth are
and swallow yet another cause for jealousy. Flash on her teeth,
what would they feel like to my tongue? Fuck, don't think that! Bet
they taste like mint. Straight face, straight face.
    "We don't have to go so fast I guess, but can
we keep going?"
    "Yeah sure. Just keep us smokers in mind. We're
a dying breed you know."
    As we start off again Shelving Fairy looks at
me strangely. "Can I bum one?" She asks in a pitiful little
voice.
    "You don't smoke."
    "I used to, and I could really use one."
Shelving Fairy runs her hands through her hair.
    I glow at her and offer a Camel. "Always ready
to welcome a lost sheep back to the fold." I say and its true;
smokers love it when you smoke, its vindicating.
    "Thanks. Listen, you wanna get some
food?"
    "Yeah, Golden Waffle?"
    "Where's that?"
    "Two more blocks up and about four that
way."
    Shelving Fairy shakes her head. "Too close to
the water."
    Silently I give the girl props for weirdest
reply of the evening by a character other than me. We keep walking
for a few steps. "So..." I begin.
    "Look." Shelving Fairy cuts me off. "Never
mind, okay? Golden Waffle is fine. We'll sit in the back." I am
about to tell her to relax when I stop myself. When was the last
time I got to be the normal one? The calm, reasonable one? So I
just smile instead. This is great.
    "So you wanna talk?" asks Shelving
Fairy.
    "Huh? About what?"
    "Anything: work, school, your family, early
childhood."
    I look sideways at Shelving Fairy. "You're the
one who seems like she has something interesting to
say."
    Shelving Fairy shrugs. "Maybe, but I don't want
to talk about it. So you talk. Distract me."
    "Not much to say." I answer. "Let's see,
there's that new guy at work, what's his face with the squirrelly
eyebrows."
    "Doug."
    "Whatever, Doug. He likes you."
    "He has squirrelly eyebrows?"
    "You haven't noticed? They curl like linoleum,
gay, stringy, fucking linoleum. You could braid those bitches. And
he's in love with you."
    Shelving Fairy makes a face like 'whatever' but
she preens a little and straightens her shirt so I can tell she's
pleased. "He is not in love with me."
    "Of course he is." I lower my voice to the
generic imitate-a-guy pitch. "Here let me lift that book for you.
I'm going to the store can I get you something? So, uh, I'm in this
band." I