09/23/09

I was returning home from college for the holidays, and along the way I met up with some 
friends. Most of them had gotten totally sloshed and had the Jay-Z on full blast. I was 
following their black Ford Exploder with chrome wheels in my red honda CRX on the interstate 
highways going into Indianapolis.

Somehow I missed a turn or something so I pulled over at the next exit, not knowing exactly 
where I was supposed to be going. It was downtown somewhere. I tried to make a couple calls 
on my cellphone but the reception was terrible. Looking to the east, there was a seriously 
bad fire going, off in the distance. Tons of smoke. The sky actually started to look red.

I spot someone I thought I knew walking down the street and get out to try to talk to him. He 
is talking to a police officer. A businessman grabs me by the shoulder, says something 
cryptic about Muslims, then laughs nervously and stomps off. I meet up with Calvin/Jeremy. 
Turns out the police officer was his brother. He tells me I really ought to go home, as 
nobody knows what might happen next. I still don't know what's going on.

A couple hours later, I manage to meet up with a few of my friends again. It's dark now, and 
there are helicopters going overhead. One of the girls has a crush on me and asks to go with 
me out to see the big fire, or what's left of it, so we go.

On the way we pass through an enormous city block of gothic architecture. The faceted ceramic 
buildings glitter in the moonlight, even through the smoke.

"What the heck are those?" I ask.

"They're the largest independent *mumble* buildings with one owner in the world. You can 
think of it sort of like a cathedral." says Anna.

"Well they all look the same to me."

We reach an area of high smoke density and it's not obvious where to go next, so I park and 
we just walk down the middle of the road. We aren't alone, and it starts to take on a sort of 
carnival atmosphere. The gothic buildings are lit up with a laser light display; it reminds 
me of the olympics opening ceremony. I'm pretty sure they're actually even displaying the 
olympic logo, but the smoke causes too much distortion and it all turns into rainbow 
flickers up and down.

I spot the building that was on fire. There's still a huge column of smoke rising from all 
around it, but the building itself doesn't look damaged. We head in that direction against 
the tide of korean(?) students. They look like football players. Many of them have what 
appears to be dark red ink smeared on their faces, mostly around the nose and mouth. It's not 
blood; wrong color and too sticky, it stretches out when you touch it like pizza cheese. I 
surmise that the smoke contained some kind of red coloring that condensed on their breath. 
Peeking in one of the rooms as we pass by, it's a financial accounting class, complete with 
overhead projector and Greek math symbols.

Anna has climbed up onto one of the high carved limestone walls around a courtyard and is 
walking around it balancing precariously. I make a "tut tut" sound in mock disapproval. With 
a giggle, she reluctantly lowers herself down off the wall onto my shoulders and to the 
ground. She leans over to kiss me. I am reminded of various other girls I have kissed.