“Too simple. A mistake.”

“God, you’d think you’d found paradise here in this crummy desert. You must be half nuts.”

I had decided not to answer. I stepped toward her, but unfortunately got my foot stuck in a hole and fell flat on my face. I hurt my knee. It was obviously a detail that didn’t bother her. She kept at me about her rage to live in the fast lane while I was busy crawling behind her in the dust.

“Take Sonia. Look how she made out. Now she can really live! Imagine what we could do if we just got off our butts and…”

“Betty, for Christ sakes…!”

“I can’t understand why you don’t feel suffocated here. There’s nothing happening-nothing that’s going to happen!”

“Come here and help me, goddammit. Come…”

But I could see she wasn’t listening. She hadn’t budged an inch. She was totally locked into her fantasy by then-breath short and eyes shining.

“Don’t you ever see yourself taking off for the islands one of these mornings?” She added. “One of these days, just setting sail for paradise?”

“Let’s get home and go to bed,” I said.

She fixed her eyes on me:

“All we have to do is stir things up a little! All we have to do is want to.”

“And what do you hope to accomplish, exactly? What do you think is going to-”

“God, can you imagine what it’s like on the islands?”

The vision of it had set her brain on fire. She let out a little nervous giggle, then took off without me, juggling her sugar-plum daydreams while I barely managed to get up on my knees.

“SHIT…” I yelled after her. “YOU KNOW WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR ISLANDS!?”

3

For the next few days, we didn’t talk about it. We were over our heads in work. I’d never seen so much all at one time. A fucking cyclone hit us. So many things were torn up that after a while you gave up counting. Windows broken into a thousand pieces, all kinds of crap scattered in the alleys. Looking at a disaster this size, all we could do was shake our heads and stare at each other. George scratched his head and grimaced. Betty just sort of laughed.