Walking Manhattan

New York. July, 2009. We stayed in an apartment at Upper East, just a few blocks from Central Park. My first visit without work and meetings. Soon I realised that my son knew more about the city than I. He told me about Lower East around Chinatown, and Ludlow Street where the artists and musicians hanged around. He had a friend there and our paths diverged. I was looking for a book. 

It rained that day but I didn't care and walked down to Battersea and back, looking for famous bookshops and antiquaries and learned that most of them don’t exist anymore. I was too late but found one at Upper East, on the third floor. The door was locked but the owner came walking up the stairs. He, a tall and broad middle-aged man in a suit, asked where I came from and what I was doing in town. I told him I was there with my 20-year-old son.

“You must be a good man”, he said. “I wouldn’t go anywhere with my son.”
“Why?”
“He smokes pot all nights and sleeps all days. He’s in the lost generation! I can’t stand him. Where are your son?”
"At Ludlow Street, I'd guess."
"You could tell him to stay there."
I told the man I was looking for an early print of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five.
“What? Are you insane? Still in the medieval time? You don’t walk around to find old books anymore!” He thought a while and said: “I will help you. Come on in.”

He locked up the door and invited me into the office. There were a lot of computers inside and two people working in front of computer screens. Old analog maps were hanging on the walls that were dark.
The man presented me loudly: “This good man comes from Sweden to look for books here. He is in deep trouble since he’s traveling with his 20-year-old son. Give him all help he needs!”

His employees, a young man and woman, started to search for the book. They scanned the whole world and printed out a list of all available early prints of Slaughterhouse-Five.

“This is the way to do it”, the man said. “The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers - ILAB is the place. Absolutely reliable, best prices and accurate quality information on each copy - and usually quick deliveries! Stop do this walking!”
He turned to the woman. “Help this good man out so he can take care of his son.”  
I walked on south, in the direction of Ludlow Street.