Shopkeepers open their hearts to strangers, telling them that inside their shops there are savings. And in response, people laugh cruel laughs. They snort like horses, like pigs. I have traced the contours of a man s face in a frosty window, with my finger, and then tried to fog the window again. I eat dried apricots all year round, though they re best in spring.
People laugh at coupons, and, when they are offered, they refuse coupon books.
These people with their rotting teeth and black throats. I used to play Vietnam with my friends. We would wear camouflage pants, and would jump in the ravine behind Kris s house, and wrestle each other down the side, shhhing through the wet leaves and black dirt. Where we lived there was some of the richest soil in the world. When there is a sale you should not laugh.