74The horse and the sheep walked along the riverside. While housing developments could be seen shimmering in the heat on one side of the stream, the other bank led to open land and a memory of food, so the horse preferred to walk on that side. The smell of the mares was stronger here, but he sensed they had passed this way much earlier, as the scent wasn't fresh.
The open land was rocky and flat, and it also held homes, but these buildings were old and humble. The modest domiciles rested on squares of land, some with gardens where tender seedlings pushed out of the earth and others with rusting cars and trucks in the yards.
An old woman carried a glass jar filled with kitchen scraps, which she dumped on a pile of compost. She found a rake and worked the leftovers into the mound. Then she
