We finished robbing the grave by late afternoon. We pulled the gold teeth with old pliers and sold to a merchant on Degraves. The eyes we sold to a mute woman at the market. The liver and kidney were salvageable; in the basement of Lord’s Mercy we got cash from a doctor whose hands shook uncontrollably. At the end of the day we retired to a dark bar by the river, to smoke and forget about the following day for a while.

When I got home she half-asked how my day had been. “Same old same old,” I half-replied.