Desert City Sun

I'm walking by the silent cinema when a man in a parked car to my right asks where all the movie theatres are around here.

I'm having frayed quasi-mid-life-crisis thoughts, but recover, side-eyeing the silent cinema to my left, and say er, there's one at so & so, just up so & so. Are you looking for a regular theatre?

Yeah, one that doesn't suck, he replies with conviction--the opposite of what I'm feeling, namely about theatre, production and being a playwright--as if my advice to him in this regard will unlock the obstacle some invisible power has rigged just to mess with us.

There's one up there, I tell him, non-committal, then fall silent and resume my walk in the opposite direction.