Page 23 of The Mouse and the Maestro

“A fork?” he asked hopefully. He hadn’t been able to find any so far.

“No, a rubber band.” She dug in her purse, pulled one out, and wound it around the top of his chopsticks. Then she rolled a piece of paper and stuck it between the two sticks. “Leverage.”

He tested the new arrangement, easily pinching the sticks. “This is so much better. Why doesn’t everyone do this?”

“A lot of small children do,” she said, and he laughed.

A half hour later, they stumbled out, their bellies stuffed. “That was amazing. I’m never going to be able to eat at a so-called Chinese buffet again,” Blue said.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” she said.

“I really did,” he assured her. “What else do you have planned for me?”

“A few things, but I’ve been having second thoughts. These are things I enjoyed when I was here, but I was seventeen, unable to go to clubs or bars or anywhere exciting or illicit. I don’t want to bore you.”

“Jane, I’m twenty nine. I haven’t been to a club in seven years. On my last day off I spent eight hours in an online gaming tournament. Please believe me when I tell you my life is far less interesting or exciting than whatever you’re imagining. I want to see the city through your eyes. A day in the life of Jane, or rather an evening in the life.”

“Okay, let’s go.” She tossed her hand in the air, hailed a taxi, and gave him the address. Twenty minutes later, they arrived in front of a building Blue didn’t recognize. Jane flashed an ID, and they were admitted entrance.

“What is this place?” Blue asked.

“The Explorers Club,” Jane replied. “My dad is a member and used to take me here whenever we were in New York. I thought it was the coolest place ever as a kid. When I moved here, I joined and used to hang out whenever I was homesick and missing him.”

“I had no idea this existed,” Blue said. It was a literal explorer’s club, founded by some of the people who first trekked to the Arctic and discovered unmapped territories. The space was filled with exploits, taxidermy animals, and incredible souvenirs, and the building itself was spectacular. Jane led him on a quick tour, giving him the highlights of what could have lasted days, given the amount of things to see.

She checked her phone for the time. “Ready?”

He wasn’t; he could stay for hours more, inspecting all the cool sights at the club. But now he was curious to see what elseshe had planned. “Ready,” he agreed. This time they walked to their destination, a few blocks and then Jane took his arm.

“Here,” she said. He looked around, but it appeared like any boring street corner.

“No,here.” She pointed to the ground. Blue looked down and saw a section of rock enclosed in glass.

“What is it?”

“It’s the Portal Down to Old New York. In 1975, they did an archaeological dig and located the remains of the first Dutch colony from the 1640’s. This is it. We’re standing where settlers stood four hundred years ago.”

“This is so unbelievably cool,” Blue breathed, crouching to get a better look. “I had no idea they did an archaeological dig in the middle of Manhattan.”

“Most people walk over it every day with no idea,” Jane said. “It always felt like my little secret, kind of. My connection with all the people who have come through New York for the last four hundred years.”

Blue pulled out his phone and took a picture and then took a selfie before pulling Jane alongside and taking one of her, too.

“I’d ask you to tag me in that, but basically you’d have to pin it to a literal bulletin board and write my name on it,” she joked.

He wanted to ask her about her lack of online presence and social media, but he sensed the topic was deeper and more taboo than he wanted to approach. The night was fun and interesting, and he didn’t want to do anything to spoil it. She checked the time on her phone.

“We have to hurry,” she said and jetted away so quickly he had to jog to keep up with her.

The next place they went was somewhere he recognized, but he wasn’t sure what they were doing there. Jane led him into Grand Central Station and positioned him against a wall.

“Stay right here. Don’t move,” she ordered. He watched as she walked across the massive room. He had no idea what she was doing, and then he heard it, a tiny whisper. It had to be some kind of fluke or anomaly to hear her small voice above the din of the teeming crowd of people.

“If you can hear me, turn toward the wall and whisper,” Jane murmured.

“How are you doing this?” he whispered to his wall.

“The miracle of architecture,” she whispered in reply.

---