The Quota

Excerpt

Pin-Pin had a faint smile on his face as he sucked his thumb and rocked from side to side, dreaming of flying cows. Tonight he slept crouched between a bag of coal that was twice his weight and the rough concrete wall of an outdoor wash sink, and as he slept, loose gravel strewn about the yard pinched his bare bottom through a hole in his pants. He woke up and adjusted the banana leaf he had tied around his foot. The floppy leaf held a stalk of single bible plant in place, covering a wound that was taking weeks to heal. He had gotten hurt when a boy, hardly much older than him, tried to steal Miss Clover's money when he was too far out of her territory. Pin-Pin put up quite a fight, saving the day's earnings, but he stepped on the piece of broken bottle the boy had used to attack him.