There is a thin sinew of land connecting New Brunswick to Nova Scotia. The thick forests that dominate both provinces are on intermission here, replaced by rolling, tan grassland. A clump of red and white thorns bristle heavenwards, their signal lights strobing on and off in the distance. Normally, radio antennas are found in small groups, but this group is far larger, far taller. Black wires run from the apex of one antenna to the next, supporting a loose mesh a cables stretching from tower to tower. A batting cage for the gods? The world's largest driving range? 23 acre spider web? Thickets of satellite dishes surround the base of each tower, themselves surrounded by a tall, barbed-wire fence. An ice cube of a building with too few windows to be trustworthy sits in the center. The nerve center. The sort of building that explodes at the end of every action movie, a quick rack-focus shifting it into fiery bokeh while a threateningly attractive couple French kisses in the foreground. A sign appears. Radio Canada International. They are probably broadcasting insipid educational material.
"I mean, we have road rage, but it's not like anyone is going to get killed." They haven't traveled in the States much, but they have been on edge the few times that they have. "Some guy cut us off while we were driving and my dad was about to flip him off and I was like 'Stop it! Stop it! They might shoot us!' It actually like of scared me." Laughter. Pause. They say Detroit was scary. Detroit is scary. Detroit is also Detroit, one burned cinder worked into a larger, more colorful mosaic. Not to say that there aren't a lot of other burned cinders... After a tequila shot he says: "so, really now, do most people own guns?" Less so in the coastal cities but, yes, many do. After a tequila shot she says: "I heard LA is a war zone, like gangs and shootings everywhere." It's not. Compton, two decades ago, yeah. "We have lots of rifles for hunting, but you guys have mostly handguns, don't you?" Probably. "Why?" People are scared. "Why?" Pause. "Do you own a gun?"
