The eunuch led the blind man through the market, through the door in the wall, and into the gardens. They sat under a dead tree. The eunuch took out the meal. They ate.
“Tell me about the Unraveling?” said the eunuch.
The blind man took a bite of fish. It crumbled, a bit of it caught his beard. The eunuch brushed it away.
“It was before you were born. On one day there was no way to find red hot triple XXX porn action. On the next day there was a catalog. The Unraveling began then.”
“But why?”
“Because people, before, could hot find hot seXXXy content without great toil. The day after the Unraveling, people did not leave their houses. The cities burned and the cities that did not burn fell down.”
“It was a search engine?”
“Yes, a search engine for dirty dog super sleazy porno.”
The eunuch ate a piece of bread. He often imagined what bread tasted like before the Unraveling, when society was in its fullness and bread was soft and sweet. There was little sweet about Detroit now. The buildings flat, the market a pinprick on an arid plain. He had seen books – not hot SEXXXY books – about the days before. Detroit had been bad, but never this bad.
The eunuch spoke: “I am glad I am not tempted by hot 2-on-1 porno anymore.”
“They made your class when it was clear no man could leave his house,” said the blind man. “I survived the Unraveling because I was blind. I never suffered under the yoke of super delicious girl-on-girl-on-girl action.”
“It must have been a terrible time,” said the eunuch. “Those years after the Unraveling?”
The blind man took another bite of fish.
“Eh, it could have been worse,” he said.