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to smoke and drink,” the male flashlight added. “But if we allow that at the project, the state will take away our funding.”
    “So we have to live by the state’s rules?” Maggot said. “Javohl! Heil Hitler! We love you, Saddam. Raise your red flags, comrades! The state rules!”
    “We’re only looking out for your safety and welfare,” the female flashlight said. “The longer you stay on thestreet, the better the chance you’ll die before the age of thirty.”
    “Thirty?” Maggot laughed. “Forget it. I won’t live past eighteen.”
    “Do you know that every day fourteen children are buried in unmarked graves because no one knows who they are?” the woman asked. “Do you want to be one of them? You could die and no one would ever know. Your parents would never know. Do you really want that?”
    “Sounds okay to me,” said 2Moro.
    “Yeah,” agreed Maggot. “What makes you think our parents even care?”
    “Of course they do,” said the female flashlight.
    “Then why did my parents tell me to get out and never come back?” Jewel asked.
    “My mom don’t want me back,” added Rainbow. “Not unless I can get her drugs or money.”
    “Blaming your parents for your crappy lives isn’t going to help,” the male flashlight said. “You have to help yourselves. We’re offering the first step. We’ll get you off the street and cleaned up.”
    “And then what?” OG asked.
    “Then it’s nine to five,” Maggot said. “The status quo. God, Mom, apple pie, and the good old American capitalist patriarchal society.”
    “You’d rather stay here?” the female flashlight asked in disbelief.
    “Why not?” answered Rainbow. “If this is what it takes to be free and do what we want and come and goas we please without a bunch of goody-two-shoe grown-ups telling us what we can and can’t do.”
    It got quiet. The sounds of the city crept back into the room. The man and woman lowered their flashlights so that the beams lit the floor. A crushed beer can here. An empty ramen noodle packet there. 2Moro puffed on her cigarette and the ember glowed red in the dim light.
    “Thanks for stopping by.” OG waved like he expected the flashlight people to give up and go away.
    “The temperature’s supposed to drop below freezing tonight and then down into the teens by the end of the week,” the male flashlight said. “It’s going to get awful cold in here.”
    “Thanks for the weather forecast,” said Maggot.
    “You’d really rather live like this?” the woman flashlight asked again.
    “Hey, remember that song about freedom being just another word for nothing left to lose?” OG asked, then went into another spasm of coughing.
    “You realize some of you may not be alive by this time next year?” the male flashlight asked.
    “Is that a promise?” Maggot asked.
    With a loud sigh, the male flashlight turned to the female. “Let’s go.”
    The female flashlight had one last thing to say. “I know it’s hard for you to talk to us with your friends around, but you can always come by yourself and they won’t know. Remember, it’s the Youth Housing Project on St. Marks Place.”
    The flashlights turned away and went back down the stairs. The room went dark. Then small flames burst on as 2Moro began to relight the candles.
    “Someday I’m going to live in a penthouse,” Jewel said. “And I’ll go find those two and invite them up for a drink.”

FIVE
    It got colder. I saw a lady fall on the icy sidewalk. Coffee froze solid if you left it overnight in a cup. My stomach hurt. There was stuff at the drugstore to make it feel better, but it cost money. With a piece of cardboard from the garbage and a pen from the street I made a sign:
    MONY 4 EGS AN CRAONS
    I stood on the sidewalk outside the food store and showed the sign to the people who came out carrying bags of groceries, but they all stared at my face, then the sign, then frowned and kept walking. Jewel came by wearing a short black jacket