Revenge

He signs himself over to clear his debts. At auction the bidding opens at five years and each bid takes time off the term, so one mocked defect costs him seven more. The two men who buy him used to report to him, and spent a year arranging his ruin.

by Billy Billy

The whites lost the war, so wages become coupons, coupons become debt, and debt becomes a collar. Blacks rule, Latins join them, and the narrator strolls past each frozen frame gloating. Free whites abroad are lured home by tourist offers and processed at the border.

by Billy Billy

A rich, pretty eighteen-year-old fails a grade, defrauds an airline, or mocks the wrong inferior, and a judge turns him into a number. Depilated, graded A to E, auctioned. The buyer is almost always someone who knew him free: the rival, the kid brother, the employee.