One Saturday night the six of them -- Sara and Arthur, Rachel and Ned, Bea and Sean -- went to a computer awards ceremony in a former Fed Ex weighing station. They ate sushi on original flavor doritos and watched computer simulations projected on screens and looked at all the other people dressed in black. The warehouse was long and carried sound, and Sean said something that sounded like soap suds stain my bottom.

What? Sara asked.

So sincere the modem, he repeated.

Yes, ha ha, Sara tried.

People stood in line for the buffet gathering food then eating it as they stood in the next line, standing and eating and gathering then going to the next, never stopping to sit.

Family style, Bea was saying.

Rachel and Sara watched the all-girl band play Afro-Haitian music and dance, holding their hands out, bringing them back, jerking their hips and their heads.

This represents harvest, the lead singer said in a Jamaican accent. The women are gathering seeds, she said.