_It’s not quite raining yet, but it will be soon. ME is hunched over his new toy. He has just discovered something, namely, that when he flips the switches and dips the pips in a certain secret way, the answers to everybody’s questions get projected on the abandoned drive-in movie screen under which HIM and HER and ME are awaiting the thunder. Too bad a jumble of answers out of context tend not to make any damn sense. But HER doesn’t care, bless her heart and her firm, creamy legs. She’s having a blast. Don’t you love her for that? I do. One rain drop kills itself on HER’s pert nose, making her more beautiful than ever._ HER: Let’s play again! _[then, to HIM]_ Come on! HIM: Oh okay, fine. Whatever. _ME, feeling pleasantly insane, makes the thing go again. Up on the vast screen:_ _DID I TELL YOU ABOUT THE BINARY SYSTEM? WE HAVE STOLEN AN IMPERIAL CRUISER NAMED TULABIRD. IT WAS EMPTY ANYWAY. WE RETROFITTED ITS CONVERTER WITH A PERSHIDIUM LAYER (OF COURSE) AND CONNECTED THE BRIDGES OF THE TWO SHIPS WITH MY DAUGHTER’S WINNIETHE-POOH TUNNEL. IT’S COOL. YOU CAN SIDLE BACK AND FORTH FROM THE DINGY TO THE TULABIRD IN YOUR PJ’S. THE WEIRD GLOW OF THE COSMOS ILLUMINATES THE INSIDE OF THE TUNNEL, AND YOU CAN THINK ABOUT ALL THAT MASSIVE NOTHINGNESS JUST A HUNNY-SCRAWLED MEMBRANE AWAY. IT’S COOL._ HER: Okay, this is cool, but it’s starting to get a little weird. What exactly is going on here? ME: I don’t know. _[He is trying to keep things light and jaunty, but the truth is, he is a little scared. Not because of the weird movie clip they just saw, but because there was some undeniable familiarity in it, almost as though they were seeing it from the other side of the screen, and THEY were the movie. Or something. And he can tell HER has felt it too.]_ HIM: Look. _[points to the abandoned volcano. A thin column of smoke eeks out of the top of the blasted cone.]_ _HIM, HER, and ME look at each other. Or, to be more precise, HER looks back and forth between HIM and ME, checking for signs. HIM looks at HER for an instant, which is all he can stand because of the sunken feeling in his traitorous gut, then stares at the volcano. ME fixes his gaze on a freckle on the side of HER’s perfect, wet nose. Good god, everything depends on that one cute little dot on her nose, he knows._