A sad tale.

الليلة الماضية حلمت أن بيت عنيا كانت حاملا بتوأم، لكنه كان مثل كنت أعرف أنها لم تكن أطفالها البيولوجية .... غريبة. على أي حال، توفي على ما يبدو واحدة في بطنها وبعد ذلك الآخر قتلوا أنفسهم لأنهم كانوا حزين جدا أن الطرف الآخر قد مات. انتحار طفل الملتزم في الرحم. الذي يحلم بذلك؟!؟ غريب حقا كان وكان مستاء جدا الجميع. حدث بعض الأشياء الأخرى ولكن غريب لا أتذكر حقا.

Los edificios que caen en la capital

I was sleeping in a room full of bunk beds when a guy I talk trash about from time to time peeked through the white sheet that separated my lower bunk from the other bunkers.  He had glasses on, and his face was thinner than I remembered.  

"I heard you're leaving tomorrow," he said. "You know I love you, right?"

I hadn't known that.  

I was in the back of a kitchen trying to convince Kristin to come with me.  But she couldn't.  Something was going on with my plane ticket.  I couldn't figure out what time my plane left.  But I walked into the city alone.  There were people on the streets, a vibe of unease.

People were turned in my direction; they were looking behind me with a look of dismay and sadness.

I turned as well and was astonished to see one of the twin towers, falling, crumbling.

"Not again," I thought.  I knew it was terrorists.  They were angry because of an embargo.  I was crushed.  Deeply saddened at all those lives that had just been folded into the earth right in front of me.  And I was then concerned for my own safety.  Looking at downtown Little Rock before me, the sky was a dark gray.  And then our buildings began to crumble.  Those in front of me.  Would the capital fall too?  I was standing right in front of it.  I was in panic mode.  Survival panic.  The columns began to crumble.  There was so much noise I could hear nothing.  Everything was happening in slow motion.  I saw what a girl I knew from high school was doing and I imitated her, running from underneath the capital towards the street.  I ran and it felt like I was running in the ocean or on the moon.  Through gravity.

I kicked off of one of the columns to gain momentum.

Things were collapsing, the closing of a pop up book, our world.

Parece que un animal de peluche desempeñado un papel

A quiz contest my brother and I were trying to enter.  By the time we got to the venue the answer had already been given and I was surprised to see it was being held at a bar.

"Looks like a trivia night," I said.

Brent didn't want to go in there, so we didn't.  I saw some couple I recognized and hoped they didn't recognize me.

We went to a grocery store.  And a huge dark building.  

Yo estaba detrás de algo por una cadena. Fue mi micrófono bebé.

I was trying to see my buddy's show in this basement space.  We were lounging around against a brick wall and talking about what we write about.  "I write about music and I write to you," he said.  I wanted to ask him about it but I didn't.  "I write all the time," I said.

I left and went to a toy store where people were pointing toy guns at each other and looking cool.  When I went back to the venue there were three huge dudes with long stringy hair in ponytails and wearing black taking the cover charge.  A chalkboard sign said entry was 35 dollars.  I didn't recognize any of the band names.  One of the names had far too many "l'"s and one might have included "chicken."

Geez louise.  35 dollars.  A lot of the kids from the toy store were going in.  But I didn't even see the name of my friend's band on the board.  All of a sudden a blonde guy came up and said he had to show me something in the lobby.  I figured he was with one of the other bands and was going to take me down the back staircase to the basement thus evading the fee.  But I guess there was no back stairway.

Instead we stood on the corner in the nighttime air, next to a stop sign and two cute girls who put their arms around him.

"Thirty-five dollars is simply unheard of," I sighed.  "Unless it's like Weezer or somebody."

"Weezer," they all laughed.

I didn't know what to do so I went down a dark staircase.  I was trailing something, like a tail, but heavier.  It was the microphone I'd been given, the little one that travels well.

Earlier I'd been in a smoking lounge working when boys in matching company sweatshirts came in.  The sweatshirts were blue with white letters.  Maybe there was a polar bear.

"He'd like to speak with you," said Sweatshirt 1.

"I'd rather not.  Please leave," said I.

"Lauren.  What's that guys name again?  Your ex?  Anyway, he needs to chill out so we can just talk," said Sweatshirt 2, a much-loathed acquaintance.

"Actually, it's not his fault.  I just don't want to talk to you.  I have nothing to say to you.  I don't like you."

I think he whined a little more and I left.  Wandering around trying to go to movie theaters with my travelling bag.  People in cool bands tried to help me out.

A girl with short cute black hair with a paper crown on her head said we could go out for Valentine's Day.  I took her arm, delighted.