Too Many Waking Hours

Strange phenomenon squeezed into small packages, then packaged together in giant monstrosities of foam and plaster and astro-turf. The city of Las Vegas is not real, but the lights that float above it are. Loud arguments with smiling faces, shoving each other and tipping off the security. These people need to go, they said, and escorted the two of us out in different directions: on towards the castle, the other towards the bay. Never step foot in this giant black pyramid ever again for the rest of the night! They said this at 7am. It would be a hard, difficult day.

It had been a grueling night. Several hours of bumper-induced hysteria, throttled downwards by the drugs, then bought upwards once again by the screaming rage. Cars parked all around us were silent one second, then screaming, flashing, gnawing on their dashboards the next, the scream of tires and wind, gorillas manning every steering wheel. Their white knuckles clutched around a dirge of greed and lust. Dear lord, would you look at this strip club! You couldn't buy a dream like this anywhere except the place next door, and every place next door, for the length of this city. Good luck fella, once you walk out those black painted doors you transform right back into the poor schmoe in a cab, over his head. Good luck with the recession, ya bastard. No re-entry, and cover charge cost thirty dollars, see you in hell you sonuvabitch!

Spa treatment was hell, hours and hours of painfully alert paranoia fighting against the stupors of too many waking hours. You couldn't move too much, it would upset the vitamins from entering your skin. Guy wouldn't stop talking, but when he did he took the shape of a mystic, smoke coming from his hair and a million snake skins dangling from his belt. His white coat transformed into an unsteady haze, and he stared down at your naked back with a primal focus. No way around this one, he'd have to beat his way down through the pulp. But then you looked at him and he looked like... well, he looked Polish. Only the film will tell for sure, at this point.