I was riding in the back seat a car in a country in Latin America. In my lap was seated a young woman with long black hair tied in braids. She was probably less than five feet tall and was holding a baby in her lap. Basically appearing to be a peasant woman, she was wearing simple peasant clothing. I hardly knew her and we weren't romantically involved in any way. Since I didn't want to touch her breasts with my hands, I found a place on her stomach where I could lay my hands.

I knew the woman was soon going to have an operation to cut off both her breasts. The operation apparently was done sometimes to poor women in this part of the world, and apparently the women were paid something for it. I knew the woman was going to act as if the operation didn't matter to her and that she maintained that her breasts would grow back. But the truth was that it did matter to her, and her breasts would never grow back.

***

I was walking through the streets of a large city in the Latin American country, still imagining what it would be like for the woman when her breasts were gone. I could imagine her leaving the hospital and looking down at her flat shirt.

I was planning to leave the city and the country today, but before I left, I wanted to go to a place which had some memories for me, a place where I had enjoyed some time with some people I had met in the city. Among the streets and buildings I finally arrived at a small square covered with concrete and asphalt. The surface of the square seemed divided up into sections like a checkerboard, with each section being about five foot by five foot. I saw the section where I thought my friends and I had been before. It seemed as if we had stayed there in a tent. I began walking toward it, thinking if I could just sit there quietly for a short while, I could collect my depressed thoughts together before I traveled on.

Just as I was a few steps away from the section, however, a young boy (perhaps 6-7 years old) raced past me and sat down on the section. I was quite upset, and I thought of all the other places here, he just had to pick the one where I wanted to sit. I stood in disbelief for a few minutes, not knowing exactly what to do next.

Noticing a couple rough-looking characters nearby, I decided it might be better to move along, but just as I was about to walk onto the sidewalk, one of the characters (a thin woman dressed in a blue jeans jacket and slacks) came very close to me, and I pushed her out of my way. Immediately she attacked me, and the two of us fell out into the middle of the street, struggling with each other. She was trying to hold on to me, and I was trying to get free.

It looked as if she had two male companions with her. They ran up close to us, but they didn't get mixed in with the fight.

Clearly the woman and the man simply wanted to rob me. I had my billfold in my front left pants pocket, and I didn't want to lose it because I had all my money (about $700) in it. In my left hand I was clenching a handful of coins.

As we struggled, other people gathered around, and I shouted, "Me roban! Me roban!" I thought someone surely would help me, or that the police would come, but we continued struggling, and no one came. Finally I flung open my left hand and all the coins rained onto the street. People scurried about picking them up.