I leave the airport without picking up this t-shirt I've had made at a store there. I forget what it says on the front, something which includes my name. I walk from the airport to the beach house, which doesn't seem to take that long, but when I get to the oceanside, I realize that it'd be better to go get the shirt now. I'm meeting some friends soon and I want to get the shirt and get back to the ocean before we're all supposed to go somewhere together.
As soon as I start going back to the airport, I realize I don't really know the way. It becomes obvious that walking there and back is going to take too long. I keep going, however, and soon a little girl overtakes me. She's walking briskly ahead of an older woman --perhaps her mother?-- who is berating her and throwing rocks at her. Walking along, picking up rocks, throwing them, and shouting. Ignoring the older woman, I tell the little girl it's going to be OK, that the older woman won't keep after her much longer. Some time after that I'm inside a car, putting Smartmedia disks into my samplers, testing out the songs that Sand Cats are going to play at the show tonight. I'm surprised at how great they sound, even a new one I don't remember writing. Roby is driving the car. We decide on a set list. Then we get to the mall.
A show, of course, is happening in this large mall. People live in the mall, too, of course. The show is in a spacious but crowded apartment. I walk around the show and ask a few questions of the kid that is in charge, but there's not much for me to do. I sit in the front room, where a few white love seats are pushed against the wall. There are people sitting all around this room, but no one is talking. The sound of the conversation from the next room, where the instruments are (but where no band has begun playing) is deafening. The girl next to me is a thick-enough redhead with freckles on her face. I turn and start talking to her. I find out that her name is Rhonda. She's very shy. My phone rings, and she totally withdraws from the conversation, before I've even answered it.
I go outside and press the button for a gold elevator. There are two girls inside of it. I press the button for the first floor.
