I stopped, taken aback, as I exited the eatery. Traffic had still been thin when I went in. Apparently Quinlans all got up at the same time. Or maybe there was a generally agreed-upon workday. For whatever reason, it was now chaos. I couldn’t detect anything like a right side/left side rule, or even sidewalk/roadway. Pedestrians dodged in and out of traffic, while animal-drawn carts maneuvered past each other and generally ignored people on foot. I eyed the draft animals, a vaguely oxlike beast that the Quinlans called a hown . They were huge and could probably crush an adult Quinlan without even noticing. Only their slow, steady gait allowed people to dodge them in apparent safety.