Charlie and Leo have been under structural duress. I can see the signs of strain on their supporting columns and the curve of gravity getting to their crosspieces. From what I can see, their difficulty is related to the things that people pass over the counter surface in trade for items that I have stored inside of me. When people trade a lot, Charlie and Leo seem to straighten up and have less of a load on their roofs. When people just talk about trading, or complain about how many pieces of paper or plastic or metal will be required of them to trade, my peoples' shoulders drop and they walk a little more slowly.

I wonder, is the paper that moves over the counter magical in some way? I see nothing special about it. Some of it is really quite untidy and unkempt. But people seem to value it more than anything else I've seen, including each other.

I get the sense that these pieces of paper are what keep Charlie and Leo here inside of me. It seems like they worry that they won't always be able to do what they are doing here. Their worry is silly. Of course they won't always be able to do what they're doing here! People wear out. (So do buildings and structures, but I've heard that a human year is like seven building-years.)

The Tesoro station is saying that its people are having the same visible sag. The gas station thinks that people should be happy because the numbers they put outside on its sign keep going higher and higher, which must mean things are getting better and better. More is almost always better, unless it's snow on your roof.

That's what everyone is acting like: as if they have too much snow on their roofs. But it doesn't snow in Hawaii. What is their problem?