nobody in here but us dames

we're shooting a live-action comic book-- or at least blocking the scene with live actors prior to inking-- the play centers on a bunch of tough guys and a single dame, and it's moving right along when the director yells, cut! the problem is, he explains, she's getting upstaged by the guys-- and that cannot happen. come on, sweetheart, snap to it! and she just stands there for a count of ten, vaguely insulted-- no one moves (they all know it's a good call)-- but then she's moving, sashaying across the floor right into the clot of men, and, as she swishes past, swinging her purse with deadly accuracy a hair's breadth from one guy's face-- it whistles through the air and his hair luffs back. the action comes out of nowhere, and he just stands there gaping, unsure how to react. she's not a star for nothin'. and now the chips are all hers. she reaches the far side of the room and pivots on her spike heel, gun barrel tracing a wide arc parallel to the floor to come to rest-- and she stops. the face in her sights stops her dead-- his face, his deadly beautiful face.

I'm visiting my sister who's staying with her in-laws, a bunch of israeli jews-- the grandmothers sit holding the babies, and they're tough old bats. the mothers are breast-feeding, though one of them hasn't gotten the hang of it, and she asks me to turn away-- I'm embarrassed to have been staring, and I wish I could explain how happy the sight makes me, but it's evident I'm intruding here. rain comes through the ceiling and fills up the light fixtures and clocks.

there's bombing in the sky, zapping alien laser warfare, targeting just over the ridge-- we're unsheltered and sneaking through the night, trying to get a sense of what's going on-- but then the zaps are coming too close, and we realize we should take shelter. the others go on, and I climb up into a slatted outbuilding, kind of a chicken coop but clean, up and up the rungs of roosts-- it's dim and blue inside, and after sitting quietyly in the shadows for a bit, it comes to me that the place is full of people-- and I make my way down to join them in the darkness.