So Yesterday Read Free Page B

neighborhoods, cool I groups, and constituencies
represented at the tasting. I slotted each participant into his or her place on
the cool Venn diagram.
    Jen was right: the whole
focus group had been one big missing-black-woman formation.
    "I hadn't even
noticed."
    "Really?"
    "Really." I
had to smile. "That makes it even better that you spoke up. Maybe it's not
what Mandy wanted to hear, but it's what she needs to hear."
    Jen was silent as we
took the stairs down into the subway, swiped our cards to make the turnstiles
turn.
    On the platform we faced
each other, close in the rush-hour crowd. Around us were guys with their
jackets over one arm in the summer heat and women who'd changed into sneakers
with their office attire. (I always wonder: who was the Innovator on that one? How many ankles and arches has she saved?) Jen was still looking
down, and I watched her expression shifting, her furrowed brow and green eyes
mobilized by another internal debate. I had the stray thought that she probably
made silly faces at little kids on the subway when their parents weren't
watching | and was really good at it.
    She crinkled her nose in
the hot smelly air. "But didn't you just say it won't make any
difference?"
    I shrugged. "Not
for 'Don't Walk.' But maybe next time—"

My phone rang. (Down in
the subway! At the risk of product placement, those guys in Finland do make
good phones.)
    shugrrl, said the display.
    That was fast, I thought.
    And standing there,
pretty sure I was about to get fired, a funny thing happened. I found myself
not caring about the job, the money, or the free shoes, but really angry that
it was happening right in front of Jen and would make her feel crappy all over
again to have cost me my biggest client.
    "Hi, Mandy."
    "Just got off the
conference call. The ad airs this weekend, no changes."
    "Congratulations."
    "I told the client
about what you and your friend said."
    I started to open my
mouth to say it hadn't been my idea at all. But that wouldn't
have done any good. So I swallowed the words.
    "They were
intrigued," Mandy said flatly.
    A train went by on the
other track, and the conversation took a ten-second pause. Jen was watching me
carefully, still with the bad-smell expression on her face. I mimed confusion
for her.
    The train rattled away
into its hole.
    "Intrigued as in
pissed off? Intrigued as in hit-man hiring?"
    "Intrigued as in
interested, Hunter. They were glad to see some original thinking."
    "Hey, Mandy, no
reason to get personal. I just take pictures."
    "I mean it. They
were interested in what you said."
    "Not interested
enough to change the ad."
    "No, Hunter. Not
interested enough to reshoot a two-million-dollar ad. But there's this other
thing they want your help with, an issue that actually needs some original
thinking."
    "It does?" I
gave Jen a puzzled look. "What kind of issue?"
    "It just popped up
last week. It's sort of weird, Hunter. A big deal. You have to see for
yourself. And you've got to keep it secret. How's tomorrow?"
    "Uh, I guess it's
all right. But it wasn't really me who—"
    "Meet me at
eleven-thirty in Chinatown, Lispenard and Church, just below Canal."
    "Okay."
    "And bring your new
friend, of course. Don't be late."
    Mandy disconnected. I
dropped the phone into my pocket.
    Jen cleared her throat.
"So, I got you fired, didn't I?"
    "No, I don't think
so." I tried to imagine Mandy meeting me in Chinatown and whacking me over
the head, dropping me in the Hudson sealed in concrete. "No, definitely
not."
    "What did she
say?"
    "I think we got
promoted."
    "We?"
    I nodded, finding
another smile on my face. "Yeah, we. Doing anything tomorrow?"

 
    Chapter 4
    "DID YOU WASH YOUR
HANDS?"
    My father has asked me
that question at breakfast every day since I could talk. Probably before that.
He's an epidemiologist, which means he studies epidemics and spends a lot of
time looking at terrifying graphs of how diseases spread. These graphs, which
pretty much all look the same—like a