Deb and I met for our November coffee, as we'd agreed after jury duty. I had shown her that the City and County buildings connect, and I was rather pleased with my contribution to the friendship.
She let me finish my coffee and said, “You showed me your hallway. Let me show you mine.” Then we went into the Pedway.
I knew the stretch under Block 37. Deb knows the whole route: which doors are public, which passages close at six, where to get shoes repaired under Field's. The shoe repair man calls it Field's too. She has worked at the county through enough winters to know these things without looking at a sign.
We went from the Daley Center to Millennium Station without going outside. It took about forty minutes, with another coffee and a pretzel from a counter I probably couldn't find again. She showed me a spot where you can hear the Blue and Red lines at once if it is quiet. In another passage she told me they had once canoed through a flood. Then she said, “I'm exaggerating. We waded.”
We came out at Michigan Avenue. While we were talking about December, she mentioned that she had never had lunch under the tree at the Walnut Room. I asked her to come with me. She can do the tunnels, and I can arrange lunch.
— Ash