We were playing a game in the street, though I was really just watching. The kids would run up and down the side of the street, and though it was a sunny day, there was a constant flow of water in the gutter. Maggie Byrkit would run with the kids. When she dropped her ball (which I think was made of tar or chewing gum or silly putty) into the stream, the kids would pick it up. Maggie then had to go sleep on my grandmother's front porch. When the kids woke up Big Bird, also sleeping on the porch, he would throw water on Maggie and wake her up. She took her ball back from the kids, and they would all play again.


Kelly and I stood in front of the refrigerator looking at a bottle of grey powder. I tried to read the instructions in the bottle, but they were only in Slovak or Dutch. I couldn't figure it out. I think the Dutch directions were supposed to be humorous. Chris was trying to sleep on the bed, and we shouldn't have been there. We were disturbing him.

We got there by bus and then by boat. I was sleepy and sick during the trip. When I tried to cross the river, I thought it was huge. But I moved a stone and realized it was nothing more than a little stream. The rocks were red. It was Arizona.