Listen

A man tells a woman stories in a bar. About smuggling adventures involving precious materials and small Central Asian passageways. The woman imagines sand in the smuggler's hair and the sound of a heartbeat in the smuggler's ears from fear, sometimes. The body-shaking rush that went along with such clandestine feats. The man presents to the woman stories about the smuggler that make her feel as though life can be instantly fresh, interesting always. Drums sound in the background of the bar and people swirl around. A red cast illuminates the space; it is seductive.

Power is implicit in the storyteller. Less so in the story.