Tech Support Girl

I’m in a booth at a trade show or convention, back behind the curtains where the staff hang out. The hustle and noise of whatever business is being promoted here is close by but dim and quiet. There are five or six of us back here, with several computers and plasma screens to monitor and control what is happening up in the main part of the booth.

I’ve been having some trouble using one of the computers to buy some tickets to a museum seminar. The tech support girl has come by to fix the problem, and she is doing it while sitting on my lap. She shifts around, not uncomfortable but always moving, bouncing, straddling my thighs and leaning back against my chest. When she takes her hand off the mouse she rests it on mine, and our fingers interlace. Her long brown hair is pressed against my face. I think her name is Melissa.

She gets up to finish fixing the computer, and I turn to talk to her friend, the one with the soft Midwestern accent. The friend likes my hair, but she also knows a hairdresser with a booth at the convention, who will style my hair for free. I am genuinely excited by the idea. But Melissa’s about to leave and I have to go follow. I feel the reassuring shape and weight of my mobile phone in my pocket, a constant friend, soon to hold her number.

Shimmering Giants

We took the wrong exit on the way home. We were supposed to get off at Harbor. I knew I should have driven the van. Now we’re in the middle of nowhere – it’s just dust and empty land as far as the eye can see. And the street is flooded, water at least a foot deep, before we try to turn around. At least we aren’t far from the freeway.

The driver stops as he’s turning the van around. There is a figure standing in the middle of the street, a giant. We just drove past this spot, and there was nothing here then. It’s nine or ten feet tall, shoulders bent and waist bent as if it were about to reach down to the ground. Its skin is translucent, but constantly moving, like there’s water flowing over its body. The face is a blank - it has no eyes or mouth. It stays as still as a statue, but it’s alive. We just know this somehow. It knows we’re there, and we stare out the windows, transfixed. I have a powerful compulsion to get out of the van, to investigate, to try to talk to it, but we all snap out of it and drive away.

The van is a schoolbus now, and the water-filled street is a wide river. The banks are crowded with people and vehicles, keeping their distance but watching the giants. There are more of them, grouped in the river, water up to their knees - a dozen, twenty, men and women, standing in a group, standing on each others’ shoulders, a mountain of shimmery faceless figures of ice or magic or crystal or whatever.

U-boats patrol up and down the river, and the side roads are cordoned off by soldiers with M-16’s, warily watching the motionless giants. We have to stop at a guard post on the way back to the freeway. The soldier gestures with one hand as he grips his gun tightly, eyes darting back and forth between our bus and the giants, glistening in the middle of the river.

Poker Makeout

Abby is playing poker on TV. She looks good, of course. She's wearing her big black glasses, a white collared shirt and her trademark jeans. It's been a while since I've talked to her, but I must have heard about the show, because I'm watching it on TiVo.

Abby wins a big hand, and gets up from her seat to celebrate with someone in the audience. She marches up to a woman who looks remarkably like her, maybe a couple inches shorter, but same white shirt, same long black hair. They hug each other and laugh, enjoying Abby's good fortune. And then...did they just kiss? Is Abby rubbing that woman's breasts? Can they show this on TV?
I jump back with TiVo's Repeat button a couple of times. Yes, they're definitely kissing. And they're both rubbing each other's nipples, pretty clearly. Huh. Abby's a lesbian? It certainly would explain a lot about why she left, I guess.

It hurts, watching it happen, but it also heals the wound a little more. Not like there was much I could have done, is there, if she really wanted to be with a woman? And it is kind of hot. I'm going to watch it a few more times.

This time when I rewind it, the footage has changed. Now there's a bearded homeless guy named Bob in the audience, and he tries to stick his face in between Abby's and her girlfriend's when they go to kiss. I guess Bob doesn't think that pretty girls should be gay.

Church Trip

[Time Shift]
Janet and I are in church. It is clean and well lit, hundreds of people in rows of benches with red velvet seats and backs. The two rows in front of us are filled with blonde girls in white dresses, who get up and start to sing as part of the church service. I kind of want to sit in their empty rows, but I stay put.

It's more like a show than a church service, they are really going all out with songs and decoration and special effects. The girls in white dresses are being suspended in the air as part of the show. Are they on wires or can they really fly? Janet points at the floating choirgirls and says, "There's Herb and Abby". But the faces on the girls keep changing, I can't tell, and who the fuck is Herb anyway?

The next part of the church show has sparrows, tied to pink ribbons, lowered from the ceiling to fly over the audience. They reel the sparrows out on these red ribbons, and then reel them back up into the ceiling when their part of the show is over. The sparrows fly right up in front of your face, a foot or two away, but are held back by the ribbon. They're also covered in glitter or some gold glowing dust, which slowly falls from their wings. It's very beautiful, but I think the whole thing is kind of cruel to the birds. One sparrow snaps his ribbon and goes crashing to the floor right behind me. I turn around and there's a young boy in his blue church suit, heading for the stunned sparrow. "Don't touch him", I say, "Let him get up on his own." And sure enough, the bird hops up in a second and flies back to join his brothers.

I notice that behind me, where there used to be several rows of pews, my row is now the last row. Outside I can see a guy with a food cart, selling something. Janet turns to me and says, "I smell falafel. I'm totally going outside." And that's when I remember, and whisper in her ear, that I'm on LSD. Suddenly I can remember Angelica putting a crumbly sugar cube in my mouth this morning. That's why things have been so weird today! I think I really need to get out of this church.