The lady on the phone took a moment to compose herself. When her crying had stopped, she tried to explain the situation to me.
“I’m glad you called,” I reassured her. “How long has she been missing?”
She agreed and asked if she could come along on the track. I told her that was a good idea, and we arranged to meet at the site later in the evening. After I hung up, I pushed aside my half-eaten breakfast. Better for a city tracker not to eat before a track. Out in the woods, on the plains and in the desert, trackers use their sight, following footprints, broken twigs, droppings, even kills to track an animal. But in the city, where asphalt and concrete cover most everything in sight, we mainly rely on smell and hearing. And fasting helps. That gets the senses anxious, especially the stomach. And the nose picks up things it usually ignores, the ears start hearing better. Evolutionarily, that’s probably the way man survived thousands of years ago. The senses acted as instruments for locating food. And they were triggered by hunger.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“We think like a cat,” I told her.
We covered the entire alley. Nothing.
She took a deep breath. “I can’t smell anything but garbage,” she said to me.
