He came into the world meekly. He kept his eyes closed for a long time, listening to the voices around him. Then in the midst of the activity, he heard a voice he had heard many times before in the nine months he had developed in her womb.

“Help stop prostitution! Gimme me a dollar.”

I noticed them as soon as I walked up the stairs to the second deck of the ship. She sat on the stairs that led to the third deck. A black woman with vacant eyes, set in a very ordinary, unsmiling face.