3.
Taking it double-time in the direction of downtown, I slip into a bodega where I purchase a black T-shirt that has the words NEW YORK CITY printed on the front in bright white letters. I pay the exorbitant twenty-five-dollar fee, then redress myself right on the spot, the Chinese vendor standing behind the counter shaking his head the entire time.
“What’s the matter?” I say. “Never seen a grown man get dressed before?”
“No dress in public,” he says in his heavily accented voice. “If you do that in my country, you get arrested.”
“Welcome to New York,” I say. “Anything goes.”
I head back out of the store and continue toward downtown on foot. For a brief moment, I consider heading straight for Gramercy Park, where Ava lives with her mom and stepdad. But then just as quickly it dawns o
