carefully now, and Mai Lin wondered why none of them spoke up and told the young man who she was. They knew, the elders knew, but they were cowards, every one of them.
She had seen the pistol tucked into the young man's belt. That thing wasn't worth her concern. Her time had not come yet, she knew this. But these grandfathers had lost all of the old understanding. They were too intimidated by the new generation to teach them as they needed to be taught. No wonder the young thought they could rule, when really all they could do was swagger.
"I will borrow your camel for one day in exchange for all this silver," she announced.
The young man, finally coming to his senses, looked at the elders. Although still mongrels and rogues, they nodded their approval.
"Good," Mai Lin said.
Then she turned and started toward the door, avoiding the indolent women sleeping on the floor. She had barely noticed them on her way in and now could see that they were not worth seeing. Pathetic creatures who sold themselves for men's pleasure, they deserved to be spat upon, but Mai Lin refrained. Several lay sprawled on a thick carpet of fur. Mai Lin paused and knelt down to touch the flea-bitten hide. Her ancient eyes did not deceive her this time.
"Get away from us, you old hag," cried a girl who showed too much flesh.
Another said, "Don't let her touch you with those disgusting hands!"
Mai Lin chewed on her lips to keep from spewing forth at the nasty girls. She sensed young Swagger standing over her now, his hand on the pistol. Mai Lin pushed herself to stand, and of course the rude fellow did not help her up.
"I want this wolf hide, too," she said.
"You want this, you want that," Swagger said, pointing the gun at her. "You better leave before you get something you don't want."
The girls tittered at this, but Mai Lin studied the young man with calm eyes. She could see that his time was soon to come, maybe not this day, but soon. She shuffled over to one of the other empty counters and yanked a satchel off her shoulder. She reached inside with both hands and poured out onto the dusty wood many bars of lye soap. On top of the heap, Mai Lin tossed wads of toweling material torn into small squares. Washcloths, the Americans called them.
"What useless things are those, old one?" young Swagger asked. He laughed, and the girls laughed, too.
"You smell worse than cattle," Mai Lin said.
Swagger stepped toward her and puffed out his chest. "You are one to talk, foul woman."
"That's right, I am an foul, old woman. Not a handsome young buck like you, who should not be covered by filth and lice."
He glanced down at his pistol and spun the cylinder, but Mai Lin could tell he was listening.
"And these lovely ladies," Mai Lin could not help spitting that incorrect word in their direction, "they should not be disgusting like me. They are not rancid old women. Not yet, anyway."
"All right, all right," he said. "I will keep the bars of soap. Now, get out of here before I decide you have lived too long."
Mai Lin glanced at the grandfathers and grandmothers who slouched on the barrels and benches around the edge of the room. None of them even looked up, that was how far things had gone in this land. Mai Lin turned back to Swagger.
"I will take the dead animal hide for the soap and rags. That is a fair trade."
He raised the pistol and pointed it directly at her forehead. Mai Lin did not flinch or turn away or say a word. His hand trembled ever so slightly, not enough for the others to notice. After a long moment, she reached out and gently pushed the gun aside.
The young man waved it toward the girls reclining on the rug and shouted at them, "Get up, lazy bitches. Bath time outside, now. Move!"
Their robes fluttered after them as they scurried out the door.
With his pistol, he pointed at the hide. "You can see by the bullet holes that it didn't do what it was supposed to do. My idiot brother thought this mangy thing would protect him. He was a romantic fool and got what he deserved. Go ahead, take it, old witch."
"And you will get what you deserve, too," she could not help saying.
Then she sucked on her quid and made herself stop speaking. Instead,