Sunday, August 15th, 2004

I’m in a store/gallery with Michelle, Susannah and other people I know. There are people with their kids. I see Esme and pick her up. She’s been passed around from person to person and turn to see who I am. Recognizing me, she smiles. I ask her how she is and she replies with the voice of a world-weary & serious 10 year old, “Actually, I’m looking for (some movie). I put her down and follow her into another room.

She walks into the adjoining bar/restaurant and walks behind the bar. I look for Michelle to tell her about Esme’s advanced speech. No one I know is around so I leave.

I walk out into a warehouse-like space and begin taking a long flight of stairs down. A man in a trench coat (decorated with lapels and medals) enters the stairwell area and I hold a door for him. As he follows me down the stairs, I get paranoid and speed up. I run recklessly fast down the stairs, taking 3 or 4 steps at a time to outdistance him. The stairs are familiar to me so the pace isn’t too risky.

As I speed down, the stairs get extremely narrow and hard to get through. Eventually, the guy goes down a parallel path. I get stuck in a wooden stairwell and begin kicking the structure apart in order to continue. He yells for me not to do it as it may destabilize the whole thing. I kick my way through a part of it and jump to a bricked ledge.