We believe it is our duty to help these people, because we don't think they are getting a fair crack of the whip.

Harvesting, before the arrival of the mechanical canecutter, was performed by large numbers of workers wielding long knives.

A silver sedan with tinted windows drove by me, then slowed down for no apparent reason. Its shiny rims kept spinning even as the wheels came to a stop. Custom-made rims were common where I'd grown up in California, but in New York City they were gangster accessories. […] I tried to jog away from the blingmobile.

She sprang out from their midst like the Virgin in a busy Annunciation, calm as Mary and nimbed with that unmistakable aura of the chosen.