otherwise. Is it all for me or part for someone else? If
only half is for me then my containers are too large.
(B.D., Berkeley, California)

     I am in a room with some people. My own room opens
off it. In a spirit of independence, as if to say I don't need
them and I can manage by myself, I go into my room and
close the door. It is cold in my room as the source of heat
is in the room with the people. I try to start my own
makeshift fire, but it is still cold. I am worried that
children might be burned when I am not there to watch;
so I unplug the thing in which I have built the fire [it
looked like a bathinette with no cover or top] and push it
behind the other furniture so that no one will trip on the
cord. I tell someone that it is there so they might watch if
children are near it. This one room now becomes a
succession of rooms, with a draft which I think might
blow on the fire, so I go to shut the window in the front
room. But a pair of tanned hands are just letting go of the
window, as if they had just opened it, so I dare not close
it. The window in the back room is closed. It is a
kitchen-sized window set high in the wall and full of
plants. One plant is a vine and it is climbing around the
other plants to get to the light. (W.M., Eliot, Maine)

     ... I leave my Cadillac to be washed at an old car wash
that looks like an abandoned machine or auto shop.
There is no asphalt or cement, only open ground. There
is a shed with unfinished wooden shelves and some old
equipment lying around. There is no one there so I leave
a $5 bill with the car. I call my husband to pick me up and
later he drives me back to get the car. The proprietor has
left change attached to a block of wood. Someone else's
change is attached to another block of wood. Then I
notice on the top shelf several old wallets where people
have left money for car washes. I decide these people
really trust the proprietor. They've left the whole wallet
and valuable identification papers instead of just cash.
(S.S., Chatsworth, California)

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