Early on, when work was scarce and money scarcer, Tam was approached by a broken-toothed old man who promised him a day's good wages to lie back and let them take a little of his blood. He followed the stooped, shuffling form into an alley and did as he was told. They took a liter and afterwards told him to drink two cups of tea with sugar to make himself strong again. Even so, the next morning he couldn't raise himself off the sidewalk to go to work. Again and again, when times turned grim, he returned to offer his blood for money. On his third visit it took over two hours to fill the bottle to the brim. The blood looked thin, like water, and separated into layers before his eyes. He never went back for fear that they would drain every drop of his spirit and strength into the bottle.

THE AFTERMATH · LIFE AS A MARKETPLACE LOADER