“A ‘lone wolf’ with mental health issues, right!” Bel sigh-laughs. God, I can’t wait to see which entire ethnic group they’re going to scapegoat in the wake of this one.” “Heard they were calling in emergency personnel from the whole, what do you call it? Tri-state area? for this mess. They’re pretty far along the walking path by now, but three ambulances in full siren aren’t going to be ignorable no matter how thick the blanket of trees surrounding them.
They both fall silent as ambulances race past the entrance of the park. He’s got the sense not to say anything, but Bel catches the glance, and his expression immediately goes neutral. “Sorry to hear that,” Manny says, and then he registers more than the pain in the words. “Course, she disowned me when I turned out to be a bloke-in-progress instead of a girl, so I haven’t been back for ages.” Near my grandmother’s house.” His face falls a little, and something in his tone flattens. Spent a couple of summers up at Hackfall Wood in North Yorkshire back when I was a sprog. But then I read about this, a forest in the middle of the bloody city, and knew it was right for me. “Ah, this is why I wanted to live up here-well, that and the fact that I couldn’t afford anywhere else on the island.” He grins at Manny and resumes walking down the path Manny does, too, turning to take in the sights. He stares at this, astounded that it exists less than five miles from the lights and bluster of Broadway, while Bel inhales, his eyes shut in palpable bliss.
Past the manicured bit of mowed lawn and decorative trees, Manny beholds a forested hill rising above all, covered in a dense tangle of trees and shrubs that clearly have never seen a backhoe or road grader. Surprisingly empty, although that’s likely a factor of it being the middle of the day on a weekday, when most people are at work or school. It mostly looks like any other park on first impression-paved pathways, ironwork fences, benches, tennis courts, and the occasional dog walker complete with leashed, yapping coterie. Only things specific to his own life elude him.) It’s also the last untouched bit of an old-growth forest that once covered the entire island of Manhattan. (He seems to have no trouble remembering general facts, he notes clinically. The park is gigantic, Manny remembers seeing on a map somewhere. The apartment building is only a few blocks from Inwood Hill Park. Jemisin’s novel The City We Became is available now.
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