The Tall Building

a.

Johnny and Jake start a band. Johnny plays the drums. Jake plays the guitar. Johnny and Jake call their band: The Johnny and Jake Band.

Johnny has a brother. Johnny’s brother is Sam. Sam wants to join the band. Sam plays bass. He should play bass in our band, Jake says. Ok, Johnny says.

What are we going to call our band, Johnny asks.

We can’t name our band, Jake says, there are three of us. Oh, Johnny says. Johnny is nineteen and he has hair on his face that makes him look like he is twenty-two.

You can get us into the bars, Jake says to Johnny.
Then we can play in bars, Sam says.
Ok, Johnny says.
But we still don’t have a name, Sam says.

b.

What is your name, the manager asks.

The manager is tall and thin and wears a shirt that is black. The shirt does not have a collar. Your shirt doesn’t have a collar, Lisa says. Who is this girl, the manager asks. She is my girlfriend, Jake says. Tell her to take a hike.

Take a hike.

c.

The bar is crowded with men and the men are drinking whiskey and the men are smoking cigarettes and the men look like they have not seen a woman in a long time. I have seen a woman before, Stan says. Stan is a man at the bar.

I haven’t had sex with a woman in twelve months.

d.

The band plays loud and there is a man in the band who plays the tambourine and dances on stage. The men in the crowd do not like the band and the men in the crowd stop watching the band and start watching television.

e.

We shouldn’t have told the man with the tambourine that he could play in our band, Jake says. We shouldn’t play for men who do not know what a woman is, Sam says. I am only nineteen, Johnny says.

Get out, the manager says.

f.

The band is on the street with the people who live on the street. The people who live on the street clap their hands and say: give us your guitars. It is bad for people like you to steal things, Sam says.

People like us?

g.

It is night time and the police are in the neighborhood in a squad car. Why are you naked, Officer Jefferson asks. I have a band, Jake says.

Jake is under a tall building.

h.

On the fifteenth floor of the tall building, a man in a suit has sex with a prostitute. You are a prostitute, the man says. I know, the woman says.

Get in the car, Officer Jefferson says.

[s]