Memory and Desire

And so began some 15 minutes of peering and speculating, and strategizing, and we ultimately decided to leave through another exit -- not the same window we had crept in. Screwing up our courage, we exited out a door by one of the stairwells, and began creeping along the side of the building, hoping, we thought, to be shielded by the underbrush alongside the very see-through fence. And we had not gone 10 steps when we heard -- and saw -- a vehicle of white and blue drive by. We froze, and then immediately heard P. say, "Let's get back in…" and back into the bowels of that place we raced. I was following behind the boys, not wanting to be a third voice in the planning, as they both had taken charge. And so it was as we were making our way through the darkness once again that I heard them hiss, "Crap, someone's here." And we turned back to a corner of the building we were originally in, and finally ducked into a small and tiny corner room, with no doorknob or bolts, and a fine, large window through which we could see the outside. "What did you see back there?" I whispered … "Something -- or someone --moving with a small red light emiting from… now sure what…" Q. believed he saw an LCD screen…

We waited for what seemed an eternity but what was probably only about 10 minutes. Then all of a sudden, we heard a car door close and a vehicle drive away. And out we lept through our original entrance, through that hole in the fence, up some stairs and across away from the building only to circle back around via a trail leading to the parking lot. We trudged along, P. in grey, I in black, & D. in blue…hoodies up, backpacks bulging (in my case, a tripod jutting out the back). We nodded at the joggers and hikers walking by (yes, there were a couple), and prayed that there wouldn't be a patrol car in the lot. As we came up to it, we heaved a huge sigh of relief since we didn't see anything. Stepping up into the very edge of the lot we heard a car coming up behind us. P & I turned and glanced, perhaps at the same time, and mumbled, "oh shit," under our breaths. And we all then saw that other patrol car making its way into the lot through the front entrance. And we three kept walking, at the same pace, completely nonchalantly, and reached our vehicles. Nothing. As Q. came around the shotgun seat he said, "Oh, man, there's 3 cars here."

"Obey all the laws. If you don't know any, make them up." We made it out, and to at Royal Thai on Clement St. a few moments later. Our hearts were still beating, adrenalin still coursing through our systems. As we parked, we looked up to see -- a bright pink Ribity scrawled on a door...