"Spleen!" I said. "Thought of new shocks?"

"Shocks?" he said. "Just another mechanic's scam-"

We bumped on, getting a brief panorama of downtown Atlanta as we crested Freedom Parkway. I stared over at the glittering spires, glowing with fairybook promise denied to those of us who lived across the canyon of the Downtown Connector. Somewhere in there was the real Five Points, financial heart of Atlanta, but the view was quickly cut off by the King Center. We kept going, and I kept staring to the right, as if by keeping my eyes turned away, to the city, to the King Center, to John Hope Elementary, oh hey, look, there's Javaology-that I would not notice when we crossed Auburn Avenue.

"Thinking about her?" Spleen said, suddenly serious.

"No," I said. "We split two years ago, Spleen-"

"Never too late to catch up on old times," he responded, livening up a bit. "I could whip it back around, take a little detour down Auburn to Old Wheat-"

"You do, I get out and roll."

"This is the vampire district," he reminded me. "Nasty to have a scrape-"

"I don't care. And I thought you said this was an emergency?"

"I'm not saying we should stop, just, it's not out of our way-"

"If you really cared about making time you'd have taken Glenn Iris-" and I suddenly drew a breath. Glenn Iris turned into Randolph "That would have taken you right past her front door, dipshit." Spleen said, scowling again. "Give me a little credit. I was just needling you."

True to his word, he kept driving, taking us onward, south of Auburn, south of Decatur and the tracks, growing perilously close to the foggy, haunted tombs of Oakland Cemetery-Margaret Mitchell, Bobby Jones, Reb and Union soldiers from the Battle of Atlanta- before finally hooking round the Mill Lofts back up north into Cabbagetown.