in the distance, there is an old woman clipping coupons from the sunday paper, her cat nestled by the window sill. a man and a woman herding their two boys into a minivan for a laborous trip to the mall. another man arguing on the phone with his ex-wife about her new paramour and their daughter while the game plays silently on his tv. a teenage girl tip-toeing about her house, sneaking a bottle of rum into her room for tonight’s party while her parents sleep in. a counter-man in the corner deli handing over change to a woman he had a crush on in high school that doesn’t remember him. a bus driver who regrets taking on a double-shift today but needs the overtime because her husband, a mechanic, still hasn’t found a job. an executive awkwardly getting dressed in a hotel before taking the next flight home for the weekend. a council woman taking photographs with her constituents while her assistant jots down their grievances. a pedophile driving slowly by an empty playground two towns over from where he lives. a police officer thinking about the young girl he caught offering herself behind the industrial park just after he started his shift this morning. and a young man not old enough to drink boarding a bus off to war after having kissed his newly wed wife goodbye.