The bedridden are contriving shrewdly. It’s pitch-black as the evening distribution unfolds. The supervisor of those delivering the food is the only person with a light in his hand, a glass-enclosed candle stub. The neighborhood ad hoc interest group sits up the dead and the dying. They adjust stiff hands into stretched-out poses, while, unnoticed, living hands behind them seize upon the food handed out all along the rows. After some bickering, the organizers split the bounty. The weak then battle it out over spoonfuls of vile liquid. Tumbling over the bellies of the dead, they snatch bread
...more
