in one of these complexes , a decaying condominium block stripped of furnishing and long abandoned after a fire , a single figure with an unusual silhouette sat , not quite alone , on a middle balcony overlooking the lexington sprawl as it shrank from abandoned housing blocks to re-purposed offices to mansions-turned-farming-communes , whose sprawling yards , gardens and wooded areas had long ago been turned to growing cheeseplum , soycorn and cigarleaf .