Top of the Mountain

Date: 3/19/2018

Me, W, and his friend are purchasing a gun from S, a girl from our childhood. We get to her cabin at the side of the mountain, and I sit down with her, with W in the middle of the room (bored and anxious) and his friend by the doorway, looking down at the valley below. S is nervous and I try to walk her through what we need and the paperwork that needs to be done. W comes over every now and then but in general I am working with her to complete the purchase. S is a naturally nervous person, and works very slowly; I try to make her feel good about what’s going on and like she’s doing the right thing, but it takes very long before we finally get to the payments part of the process. We are trying to figure the payments out (type, how to split it, using which payment system) when W comes over, and bored as he is, ruins the whole thing by mocking her and making her cry. At this point I realize the sale is kaput and so I just try to close things up and make her feel better. W is glaring at her mockingly but I tell her to look at me. She has trouble at first and keeps looking at W but eventually her eyes settle on mine and I remember how she was as a girl growing up. She morphs into a wrinkly baby and I rub her on the forehead and tell her to keep her head up and just try to do her best. We leave.