NW

Leaving the pub, Felix daydreams about science fiction and how the future seems to have come true. He heads to the messy apartment of his on-again-off-again lover, Annie Bedford. Annie is in the bath. They chat for a bit, then Felix reaches under the bath and pulls out a mirror with lines of white powder on it, then puts it back. Despite the decrepit appearance of her home and her obvious drug abuse, Annie is related to an earl who owns the land the apartment building sits on. Someone arrives at Annie’s door. While she steps out of the bath to see who it is, Felix riffles through her medicine cabinet, examining the pills it contains.

The stranger at the door says he has attempted to contact Annie about signing an agreement for the building residents to split costs to improve the common areas. Annie becomes confrontational, but Felix tells the man to leave, promising that Annie will sign the agreement. Reflecting on the stranger at the door, her connection to the earl, and her lifestyle, Annie declares, “It happens that in this matter of property and drugs I am strong and they are weak. In other matters it’s the other way around.