urine puddles..you're in trouble

i got involved in a valley-style barbecue and briefly forgot the politics, but instincts are instincts. i go to work on a portable hot plate in an astonishingly cluttered kitchen but it is ruth's kitchen so for her it is custom-designed for someone of her height and her reach and her memory of exactly where everything is and where everything goes. the pit is dug in the ground for the bucolic charm and it has its moments of appropriate heat current (we were impervious to), and small dogs walking around, smelling the meat. we take turns squatting next to the fire and trying to guess if it is blood or appropriately-cooked juices dripping in the darkness. johnny, phil, and i offer a beer to everyone we know does not like to drink. duylinh fries some corn tortillas to dip in the salsa. this serves as a diversion from the meat, which we usher in quickly on escort and offer it only to skinny quiet girls. soon it has become difficult to move around since people are sitting in all the doorways and half of the yard is cultivated with spices and flowers so you can't step there. there never were any places to sit in the first place unless you wanted to be inside of a tent. it is a quaint house, over a hundred years old. it comes to pass that the chicken will not cook evenly in a timely manner so we gnaw off the parts that are not raw, put the tray in the fire and the call goes around for abando commando. hushed whispers then i give the go ahead. "we're going to buy cigarettes, we'll be right back!" in these circles it is not appropriate to leave at the height of the party unless you lie and say you are going to buy cigarettes or get some ice. if you ever let anyone know that you are planning to leave then everyone makes it a game to browbeat you and convince you to stay. the only ways to do it are to make a slipshod case for temporary absence or call out your own treachery and say "i'm bailing out." most importantly we smuggled out the three remaining bottles of beer

the students in my complex who stayed behind are yelling back and forth: "season three! have you seen season three! fuck you!"