Repair at the Market

The approaching train shortened the encounter before either side had finished negotiating what the exchange meant.

At the Ollantaytambo railway market, a young mother was selling while a baby cried nearby. The train imposed its own clock. Purchase, departure, care, value, and attention occupied the same few minutes.

The exchange did not proceed as a clean transaction. Gesture, hesitation, posture, gaze, humour, misunderstanding, and adjustment kept reopening what might otherwise have broken down.