I’m walking across the parking lot in the bright autumn sun.  I’m wearing sunglasses, and a baseball cap if only because my hair was sticking straight up like Blade Runner.

‘Hey, dude!’ I hear behind me.

A man is leaning over his passenger seat toward his rolled down window.

‘Is the Book Nook around here?’

‘Um…not nearby. But there’s a second hand book shop just there, just across the road.’

‘Over there?’

‘Just next to the Kinkos.’

‘Thanks man.’

It’s only then I question what prompted him to call me ‘dude,’ and also why I knew he was addressing me.  Standing on the sidewalk waiting to cross, he drives by in his BMW and gives me a waves with two fingers from his steering wheel.  I nod and quickly look away.