“You had it coming.”
“And now so do you. Tit for tat.”
“Listen. I want to help you,” she said, “Whatever it takes.”
“Fine. You can start by blowing me,” he said. The others laughed
along.
“But that won’t solve your problem,” she said.
“What?”
“You’ll still be terrible and miserable and tragic.”
He tried to strike her but she dodged and he fell forward onto the
alley floor. She ran, but she could not get far with her injured ankle.
Something smashed against her back, showering dirt and terracotta
shards all around. Stunned and tumbling, she knew that she would
continue to fall farther than the limit of the land. The man moved on
top of her, pulling off his belt. The others bayed like feral hounds.
“Hey, cut it out. Wait your turn,” the attacker complained. Arms
were around him now, pulling him up and off. “Wait your fucking
turn!” he yelled. Sprout watched as he was suspended above her, his
engorged shaft wagging like a wayward compass needle. The arms
held him tightly and he was silent. His penis finally sagged
earthward, then his head, and at last his entire body fell to the
stinking alley floor, revealing her redeemer.
It was important to be on the good side of a Baptist—he could
deliver you or he could drown you. The other young punks were
similarly strewn about in varying states of sleepy inundation.
Yak pulled her to her feet and she fell against his chest. He tried
to pull away from her clutch, but she was obstinate. She shuddered
and he could not deny her this small measure of comfort. He steered
her quickly away. The sado-anarchists would soon be stirring.
Leaving the alley, they stepped over the broken instrument she
had been struck with. It was a short, leafy tree sapling, studded with
red berries. The clay pot that contained it was broken to bits. A red
ribbon wrapped around it hung limply from the thin trunk.
“It’s a coffee tree,” Yak said. He picked up the card attached to
the ribbon. It bore this scrawled inscription: “War is hell. I’ll stop if
you do. Tit for tat makes the whole world titless.”
They walked together back to World O’Partments. All the way
there, through the lobby and up the stairs, she nestled against his
enormous chest, trying to shut out her world. Its convulsion and
throe could not reach her there.
After unlocking the door to her room and trying to go in, she
ABYSSINIA
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