I'm driving around the city, as if on a motorcycle, with Alona and her boyfriend. We come across an old abandoned park, which is all messy and unkempt, but it has a pond overlooked by a moldy green buddha. It's very pretty but in rough shape.

After we stop there for a few minutes, we continue up a driveway on the far side, reaching some caves abutting a house. Alona and her friend are interested in the caves, which aren't really caves, just some rocks in weird shapes that you can climb around in. I start making some noise, as if pounding nails in the rock, right near me is the wall of the house. Inside, I can hear a TV, so I feel like they can also hear my noise and it's probably annoying them (*).

A middle-aged woman comes out of the house, looking rather grizzled like a bum, and starts talking to me. She has trouble communicating because she has a really strong foreign accent, perhaps Russian. She tries to explain where she came from, and about her troubles. She has some kittens, and even the kittens have kittens. She is having trouble figuring out how to get along in this country, even with her husband who is in the house watching TV. She wants something from me, but I don't have anything to offer.

She says, anyway, if we have any empty bottles we can leave them with her for the deposit money. It happens that we have a few empty 24-oz beers we just drank, so I say sure, I can leave them for her.

Then I realize I have to leave right away, as I have to take Alona home, all the way across the city, and afterward I have an appointment to keep.

(*) I was putting up Christmas lights two evenings before, and thought my banging of nails might be bothering Scott, as it was in the wall above and outside his bedroom. It was the same feeling.