A dog ran across the street while Salvador was waiting for the light to change and got itself run over. The car that hit it didn’t slow down, just kept driving. “Hsst,” whistled Salvador, and scratched the back of his neck where the sun had made him sweat and streaked the dirt.

A woman with chopped red hair and razor burn where her eyebrows should have been came running down the street with panic in her eyes. “Have you seen a dog,” she puffed. “My dog ran away.” Salvador didn’t say anything, just pointed around the corner and looked as sympathetic as he could. The woman wailed and grabbed hold of his arm. “They’ve killed him! Oh my god!”

“I’m sorry,” he told her, and patted her on the shoulder. “He ran in front of a car. There was nothing anyone could have done.” She stared at him. Her eyes were weak and didn’t point in quite the same direction. “What was your dog’s name?”

“Trigger! Oh my god, Trigger!” Her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted. It caught him my surprise and he felt down in a tangle with her and cracked his head on the sidewalk. “Hsst,” he whistled, annoyed. The pedestrian sign on the other corner had begun to count down, flashing 13, 12, 11…