On this particular rainy day, Marlo is in the Up doing some casual shopping. She isn’t due to perform at Crimson for another couple of hours and her cello is waiting for her at the club, so she can walk around town toting nothing more than a big umbrella and a shopping bag full of cute new clothes in anticipation of the coming season. Then something awful happens.

Seeing the kid walk into traffic makes Marlo’s jaw drop and nearly causes her to drop her umbrella, as well. She puts a hand to her mouth and nearly walks out into the street to see if he’s okay along with his friends, but stands back when she sees that he has plenty of support with him already. This city is insane, but she doesn’t usually see people behaving suicidally.

Marlo looks around, still shocked, and glances over at the man who had spoken to the oddly impulsive young man before he’d headed into traffic. “My god, did you see that? What was he thinking?”