| Pyramid Scheme In 1991, shortly after the fall of communism in Albania, a pyramid scheme -- a scam as old as money itself -- spread to epic porportions within the country, and when it fell, decimated the already fragile new economy. The woman lifts the white cotton above her head, clips it to the waxy and slack line with tanned and tired hands. The motion is automatic, like a small step in a long dance. Then, one clip breaks in her hand: she frowns at the broken pieces. Another. Thirteen are left of thirty-five. Arthritis beats at her joints, small webs of space between her fingers. Elven cotton t-shirts will pay (she pauses to consider) 440 lek. Enough to buy two loaves of bread and, maybe, some meat. The dry squeak and grate on the cobblestones startles her: she turns to see him wheel the makeshift cart through the rickety gate. It is only mid-afternoon, hours before the people will make their daily pilgrimage out lonely doors, across the square, through the brown and dying park and past her husband's car on the corner. There they would stop, believe in their thirst, and purchase his soda, his chocolate, perhaps even his cigarettes. But not today. He has quit, she thinks, and before she can catch it, the thought has slipped away from her. Dangerous, thoughts like that. Dangerous. She lifts another shirt, remembers him weeping for the money lost, vanished like dust in the river. He sat then as he sits now, head down in the sunlight, and wept. What will we do? On that day, she was the strong one. We will survive. There are ways. She clips the last T-shirt to the line, forces herself to remember him before the last collapse: his strength, his ingenuity. As each year brought a new hardship, changes like a slap in the face, he had met them with unwavering energy. The old world gone, the new one not yet arrived, he dodged the blows of despair deftly, and pulled her along with him. Hope was. We will make it, he said to her. We will live like kings and queens. But as the pyramid scheme folded, she saw him fold with it. He resigned himself to the sundry cart, and came home early. Still, They would survive. On 440 lek earned by washing white cotton shirts. Enough to buy one loaf of bread and some whiskey. There are ways. |