"Into the holes in the ground, into the cracks in the street. The lucky men will get into the army. But even that won't absorb them all. The women, the children...?" She shrugged.
Just then a boy's voice came from halfway down the block. "Hey!"
They turned.
"Why that's the boy that broke the fence down," exclaimed Rara.
"What does he want?"
"I don't know. Before this afternoon I'd never seen him in my life."
He was dark, with black hair; but as he approached, they saw that his eyes were water-green. "You're the woman who was selling things, huh?"
Rara nodded. "What do you want to buy?"
"I don't want to buy anything," he said. "I want to sell something to you." He was barefoot; his pants frayed into nothing at mid-calf, and his sleeveless shirt had no fastenings.
"What do you want to sell?" she asked, her voice deepening with skepticism.