He was densely distressed—and perhaps I should have sympathized with him if I had been able to detach my mental vision from the unsuspected sharer of my cabin as though he were my second self. There he was on the other side of the bulkhead, four or five feet from us, no more, as we sat in the saloon.

Touristic discourse is inherently unlocal: a construction of images and representations that delocalize a tourist destination, repackaging it into terms and images easily circulated and consumed by nonlocals.

After that, he felt exhausted— but unspooled inside— and drove to his Wilshire Boulevard home.

Another fifty grand for Shuttles; the scumball business was booming.