My cutting tools thank you

Like I said, I brought home two forks. See, as Plan B's alarm clock with its red stick numbers counted down to 6pm, Billy and I were looking at the head tube, the place the fork goes up into and the headset stem goes down into. Billy had stuck on some spacers and was screwing on a cap of sorts when he realized he couldn't screw in the fork all the way. I unscrewed it and he bent down to look. He slid the fork out and back in.

"There," he said. He pointed to a space where the threading ended. The threads were too short.

I ended up taking the fork to Mike's Bicycles on Frenchman, not far away. I tried to walk there, but I got lost. I finally drove down a crowded Frenchman after consulting a map, but still didn't find it. I ended up parking back at Plan B, walking to Frenchman and asking a cop who was watching over a street show at Tomatillo's.

Plan B had closed behind me, the two mopeds had come and gone and all the others. I still kind of work in a bubble, not knowing who works there and not talking to anyone but Billy.

Mike's is wall to wall bikes. Even the ceiling above the fan dangles wheels. I approached the guy behind the counter, a guy about my age, I'm 27, wearing a t-shirt that read "Employee of the Month," and I told him what I needed. He directed me to Tom, a man I'd passed when I walked in. He was talking to a guy I recognized from Plan B.

'How can I help you?" he said.

I told him and he started to rattle off prices:

"A dollar a thread..."

I told him to do whatever it takes. I had measured the head tube to be 8.7 inches and I told him so, to give him some idea.

He took the fork to the back and I waited. I was enjoying the collection of exciting sock-wear when a middle-aged couple came in. They wanted to rent bikes to ride to Jazz Fest. There were only two bike left, according to the guy at the counter, and they took them.

Tom came back with an identical fork he had found, only this one was threaded nearly halfway - more than I needed. I accepted it.

"My cutting tools thank you," he said.

He knocked off the crown (?) from the old fork and sautered it, I think, to the new fork. He had to look through a catalogue before he could charge me

"Twenty-one-oh-eight," he said.