Battle

I try to get to Burien by taking the bus to Fremont; the 73 becomes the 74 becomes the 75, and I have to get off before I end up in Ballard.

My parents take me to see my sister, who is living in Bellingam on a lake. I try to explain the buses to her as she applies makeup. I pick up her concealer and apply some under my eyes. It is pasty and thick, and when I express dissatisfaction, I reassure myself out loud that it looks fine, but without actually adressing myself.

In my parents' dining room I suddenly look up, to the west, and see a dark, close horizon. The atmosphere is thick, and lights are flashing behind it. At first I think it is the radio towers flashing, but only lights above a certain height are red. The white flashes closer to the horizon are coming from guns fired by dark figures at our feet. They are spaced out all along the muddy shoreline behind baricades of our dining room furniture.