Failure

In a chemistry lab. I am holding a test tube that contains a bright, blue liquid. I want to turn it green. I look at various bottles in the lab but none contain the correct chemical for the color change. A friend takes the test tube and looks around the lab. I say the color of the liquid is the same as copper sulphate.

My friend combines an acid with Tums. The mixture fizzes and turns pink. My friend leaves abruptly carrying a plastic bottle. I feel that he is going to make a bomb.

At a house in Southern California. My friend and I stand outside above a garage. A young brunette woman is with us. The owner of the house arrives in a white convertible. He is annoyed by the garage door that fails to open properly. I feel I may be held responsible for this. The frame around the door flexes and the door finally pushes through. Above the door is a flimsy wall. The man shakes the wall like he is figuring out how he will fix it. I look at the wall wobbling and say "Two or three problems could be fixed if the wall could be fixed."

Walking up Holmes Street around 60th. The man in the convertible drives up the hill. My friend drives in the same direction in another white car. I am worried my friend does not know the man is just ahead of him and that my friend will be spotted. This would be bad because my friend is still up to something. Probably the bomb.

Walking on Holmes Street with my friend and the woman. We are at a training session for teachers. I briefly put my arm around the woman's waist. She feels like someone's wife. We flirt but the union is forbidden.

In a classroom. An old teacher talks about failure and how we should not mock it. Those of us in this class are successful, but there is going to be some failure at the school that the teacher knows about but that we do not. I leave the room and walk to my first class. I realize I have no pen and paper.