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over his shoulder at her. Not that he likes her, though he’s about the only boy who doesn’t. Even Jacob fantasizes that she’s his, apparently.
    The sound of rustling breaks out as people return to sorting garbage.
    Shifting the food slop is so much easier with the wheelbarrow and now the fact that Shareen won’t lend it means Aaron will have to load more bags and carry them one by one to the other end of Mokattam to the pig enclosure. If Lijah was allowed to leave the pony outside he could use the cart instead, but there are rules to obey here and keeping ponies out of the alleys and away from the cooking pots is an important one.
    With a tired heart, Aaron begins scooping cupped handfuls of unrecognizable yellow and brown stinking glob into the plastic bags. He fills two to the brim before the smell overwhelms him and he’s forced to stop for a second. Again he becomes aware of the pain in his elbow, which is now too old and constant to make him wince much, while his throbbing knee is hurting more than ever and distracting him. He tries bending it right back and moans softly.
    Trust Shareen to lose it today, when he really needs the wheelbarrow. That’s her all over—nothing but trouble.

Chapter Four
Abe
    Before long Abe is beside him again with the soccer ball under his arm. He seems more anxious than ever for Aaron to come and play.
    “What happened to your knee?”
    “Lijah pushed me off the cart. I banged it on the road.” Aaron gives him a sad smile as Abe sets the soccer ball in a safe place to one side and starts to help with the food.
    “It’s OK,” Abe reassures him. “We can play tomorrow.”
    “Yeah, sure.”
    “Are we taking this swill to the new place?” Abe asks.
    “Yeah.”
    Aaron frowns at the memory of the Zabbaleen’s problems last month, when government officials ordered the slaughter of all the pigs in Cairo as a precaution against an outbreak of swine flu. A procession of four cars and vans arrived in Mokattam to carry out the order, but they hadn’t reckoned on the importance of the pigs to the community and the resistance they would encounter.
    “They say it was you, Abe, who threw a brick at the van’s window and smashed it.”
    “Nah, it wasn’t me. There were loads of us crowding them,” the small boy replies.
    “The government said they’d pay after slaughtering the pigs, but everyone knows that’s a lie. The priest says they’ll be back to carry out the order. Anyway, what can we do with the rotting food if we don’t have pigs?”
    “Maybe goats would be OK?” Aaron says.
    They stand back to wipe their arms on their jeans and eye the four bags they’ve filled. The smell is sickening.
    “Simon’s going to buy a jellyfish on the Internet,” Abe says, his face lighting up with excitement, which makes Aaron smile as he drags a stinking bag into the limestone-dusted lane. Simon’s one of the oldest and cockiest kids in Mokattam and Aaron’s never understood why Abe wants him as his best friend.
    “Where’s Simon going to put the jellyfish?”
    “I don’t know.” Abe frowns.
    “You need a credit card to buy stuff on the Internet,” Aaron warns.
    “He’s going to get one from somewhere.” Abe almost trips on the bag as he positions himself to swing the slop on his back to allow him to head down the alley. “You’ll see.”
    “Simon’s never going to get a jellyfish on the Internet, or be a famous soccer player and play for an English team.”
    “But he promised,” Abe says.
    “Yeah, but he won’t.”
    Leading the way down several alleys to the pig shacks with Abe trailing behind, Aaron passes families lounging on the ground, feet out, resting after the morning’s work and eating spicy noodles from plates on their laps.
    When they arrive at the shacks, two sandy and three black pigs are sprawled under the crumbling, wooden shelters, which are held together with nails and wire. Shelters that are too small and broken to keep the sun from the