"Hey — don't act like you didn't see me! Please, help! I'll reward you handsomely!"
The screaming had the specific, top-of-the-lungs quality of someone who has passed the threshold where dignity is a resource worth conserving and has reallocated everything toward the single, urgent task of continuing to exist. The reward promise carried the particular, breathless sincerity of someone who means it completely and has not yet registered that the state of his clothing was providing detailed, contradictory testimony about what handsomely was likely to mean in practical terms.
But the words were not the real communication.
The trajectory was.
