People stroll past in groups of three or fours. Some in couples. All silent, all with their arms crossed against their chests. Sunlight flashes from their silver-painted fingernails. Who would have thought that light could absorb so much of The Abandoning? Now these same people are walking back in the opposite direction. Some carry a frond of pampas grass held aloft like a green and white crowbar to pry against an edge of The Abandoning. Just when did The Abandoning happen? Were there many Abandonings, or just one? No one knows, but downtown there is a stepladder embedded in concrete, some say it is the letter A, but others say it is a memorial to The Abandoning.