In line to buy a ticket I am useless, I concentrate on standing the way other people stand. There is not much of a variety to pick from. Reassuring, but also means I must get it right. Skyler is a good one to have along, he handles the public for me, words, transactions. I would like to lean against Skyler or a wall or anything but who knows what would happen when the line moves forward, besides which there is a cop watching everyone and I am trying not to think about that. This is the theater Lowell and I went to on our first date and I will do my best not to think about that either, I will be good to my brain tonight.

With the right distraction there is no need to fight other thoughts. The ticketseller is blonde, a junior in high school, red vest fits him badly, there is no need for him to smile. His booth is a cell and without much effort my perception whittles itself down to the walls on all his four sides. A narrow space to spend your workday, one might think it was bleeding him, but really the world is quiet and he is a bird flapping over and through water against the white water sky, white bird flapping ripple flapping in the water sky.