The first observation Z made, was of a young woman walking with a child’s carriage past his building on his way back from the laundry room. She was talking avidly and excitedly apparently to the carriage’s occupant, and Z thought to himself, “how nice, she talks to her child as an adult. No baby talk, no cooing, no patronizing…” and she seemed perfectly normal. Then, as she came closer, Z began to overhear the content of the conversation:
The woman- “how can I depend on you for anything? You say you’ll pick it up and yell at me when I remind you but here it is Thursday, and you still haven’t gotten the laundry.”
The baby – “... “
As she came yet closer and just as Z was about to condemn her as insane or at the very least unfit to pilot a carriage on a public sidewalk, he noticed the thin black wire hanging from her left ear.

Life in New York--
To live on a small island through which flows the entire world.