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I when to an open air market one day and saw a young boy roaming around the square. He was kind of little gangster. A Smooth Operator.

It was hatefully hot. Sickeningly sunny. I was sitting in my usual place along the square, beneath the meager solace of my parasol. I had recently purchased a new book and was perusing it voraciously, my eyes hungrily devouring each line with delicate fury, my hand surreptitiously supplying my mouth with a steady stream of morsels from the quarry of nuts hidden deep within my shirt pocket.

I looked up briefly, reluctant to tear my eyes from my book, and that was when, like a smear of darkness brought into the light, he was called to my attention. Just past the crowded vendors’ platform—that place where so many corpulent grocers bellow prices, obedient apprentices weigh goods, and compliant clerks shuttle crates to and fro; each man but a cog in a complex and frenzied machine—is where I found him. Standing little more than four feet from toe to top, he must have been only eleven or twelve years of age. His nose a weathervane.

His hair a glistening sheen of grease cascading from the head on all sides; it fell exactly long enough to hide two eyes of equal gloom. Together they sat cold and dark like cellmates conjecturing the color of the afternoon sky, peering out at the free world behind the iron bars that held them in.

A threadbare vest, oversized and dangling about his thighs. The whole ensemble conspired to fabricate the appearance of being drenched, despite all the while absorbing the sun’s wicked rays. I thought I myself might begin to melt simply by looking at the creature, this mirage, and I imagined myself pooling into the dusty platform, dripping down and slithering off beneath the cracks, but still, I watched him.

He was good; there was no denying it. I suppose any man (or, in this case, boy) desperate enough will adapt himself to any situation, take up any skill, any trade. The deftness with which he could make one of those plump, glistening orbs—an apple, peach, or a pear—disappear into his pants pocket, travel the length of the leg, and be liberated into the trembling hands of one of his many dutiful assistants crouching near the ground was nothing short of a marvel.

These crimes were perpetrated so smoothly, so precisely they became just another section in the vast symphony playing out before my eyes. Everything around me whirled in perfect chaos, perfect harmony, not missing a beat. Under normal circumstances, I imagine one would have to pay for such a show.

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FOCUS WORDS

• clerk: a person employed in an office or bank to keep records, accounts, and undertake other routine administrative duties.
• corpulent: a fat person
• crouch: to adopt a position where the knees are bent and the upper body is brought forward and down, typically in order to avoid detection or to defend oneself.
• dangle: to hang or swing loosely.
• devour: to eat (food or prey) hungrily or quickly.
• ensemble: a group of musicians, actors, or dancers who perform together.
• drench: to cover (something) liberally or thoroughly.
• glistening: a sparkling light reflected from something wet.
• gloom: a dark or shady place or thing
• length: the measurement or extent of something from end to end; the greater of two or the greatest of three dimensions of an object.
• peer out: to look with difficulty or concentration at someone or something.
• plump: a fat person or a thing with a round shape
• quarry: a place, typically a large, deep pit, from which stone or other materials are or have been extracted.
• reluctant: unwilling and hesitant; disinclined.
• shuttle: a form of transport that travels regularly between two places.
• slither: to move smoothly over a surface with a twisting or oscillating motion.
• smear: to spread (a greasy or sticky substance) over something.
• steady: something that is firmly fixed, supported, or balanced; not shaking or moving.
• suppose: to think or assume that something is true or probable but lack proof or certain knowledge.
• surreptitiously: in a way that attempts to avoid notice or attention.
• tremble: to shake involuntarily, typically as a result of anxiety, excitement, or frailty.