Go
to
Brooklyn and look up at
the traffic lights. You may see
shoes
thrown up there. People have been throwing shoes up to the sky since there were
telegraph lines
criss-crossing the entire street. Oh, I remember all right. People didn't throw
their shoes away so lightly in those days. Not when a pair of shoes was
a month's wages. People
threw the shoes up to send messages. Ask a
sorceror, they will tell you
the secret meaning of the shoes.
I will tell you. A pair of polished dress
shoes near the pole means that Old Jack has come up from the pipe and seeks
tribute. A pair
of dirty dress shoes means that Jack is
gone.
A pair of ballet slippers with white laces in the center of the bar means that
a
Thing is happening. If it's
close to the light it means that a
Moot
is happening. If there's one slipper up there, it means that
Central Park is hosting a
big pow-wow. A pair of
sneakers is just some dumb kid having fun. And if it's a pair of spray-painted
hiking boots...something about the
sidewalk trees. I have
told you as much as I remember. Ask a sorceror for the rest if you have the
coin to pay for it, else they
make you an apprentice. I didn't raise your mother to let her children become
sorcerors. There's more money to be made in medicine.
The
animal skulls hanging from the lines, I know nothing about them. I have nothing
to do with it. You think I would put up an omen like that? You think I have
the money to buy an entire goat just so I could use its head to put the fear of
God into the entire city? Hah!
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