shorn of these this , the populus was reduced to their terrified , shivering core : they scuttled , bent , hunched ; collectively they mutated back into what they had always been : plain blonde women who wheeled their smug preoccupations behind them along with their square little suitcases ; tall , very black men with non-matching jackets and trousers and earnest books about christianity ; bland young shavers who , now that the summer was over , clutched their women close like coconut-shy prizes and showed them to the city like they would show them to their mothers .