I am visiting my mother and she lives in a new house. The house is fabulous, opulent. There are many cases and display areas for expensive art and pottery, and my mother shows me around and points out all the decor. It is lovely and very appropriate, not over-the-top and tasteless.
I am planning to catch a flight to Los Angeles and I say that I will pick up some jewelry for my mother while I’m there. She describes what’s she’s looking for; she wants gold rings with semi-precious gems like moonstones in them. I decide to take a shower before I leave, and the shower is in the middle of the room, with a round curtain enclosing it.
As I’m about to begin showering, a number of groups of people start coming in and out of the room, and I feel uncomfortable about using the shower in the middle of it all. It seems that people are coming from overseas for a competition that maybe has something to do with all the art my mother owns.
A group of young women arrive and they seem like the “mean girls” to me. They are making nasty and insulting comments about some of the other contestants, particularly about other young women who are not as cool as they are. Then an older south asian man arrives and they are particularly cruel to him.
