The grayed white t shirt hangs off his shoulder, revealing a prominent collar bone. He crouches in the shadows across the street from a fruit cart and takes a deep breath, scanning the crowd. Then he sees it. The signal from his best friend Thorne indicating that the fruit man is occupied with a customer. Nobody notices the small boy dart across the street and skillfully pluck two pears from a crate before ducking into the shadows of the moving crowd again.

Later, juice runs down his dirty elbows as he polishes off the first pear and notices Thorne entering the alleyway with a package tucked under his arm. He grins widely and throws open his arms, revealing two loaves of bread and a large sticky bun, Milo’s favorite.