MAX walks past a brightly lit gallery. Looks like an opening night. He notices and gives a glance inside, turns his face away with a little expression of disgust. Walks away.

EXT. QUIET STREET. MOMENTS LATER.

MAX walks on a residential street. 4 fire-engines run past him. He looks towards where the fire-engines were rushing to. He notices black smoke not so far in the distance. Continues walking back home.

EXT. A FEW BLOCKS AWAY. SAME TIME.

A house is burning.

INT. LIVING ROOM. SAME TIME.

An old man is watching a variety show on the TV.
Fire-engines running past outside the window and he notices the siren stops very close by but loses interest.
He continues watching TV.

INT. GALLERY. SAME TIME.

People are smiling and chatting over a glass of wine.
A girl, AMY is surrounded by lots of people all smiling at her. Paintings are hung on the wall.

Two well-dressed couples are chatting.

Couple A (man): He is so boring. Unbelievable.
Couple B (man): Yeah, he is. He doesn't have any talent.
Couple A (man): God, and that guy, Graham, he is boring too. He is a nice enough guy but just
unbearably boring. And he is so stupid.
Couple B (woman): What does he do?
Couple B (man): He used to mend industrial pumps.
He was a pump mender.
(Both couples laugh.)
But he lost his job.
Couple B (woman): What does he do now?
Couple A (man): He just sits and waits for someone to do something about it. Stupid boring sod.

REI enters the gallery. Looks around, catches attention of AMY and waves at her. AMY waves back but cannot get away from people speaking to her. REI looks around and notices she does not know anyone. Starts to look at paintings one by one. After a while, someone grabs her arm.

REI: (genuine smile) Looks great Amy. Are you happy?
(AMY smiles and about to say something, then, someone taps her shoulder. She turns around.)
AMY: (to REI) Will you stay here? (AMY already starts to walk away.
REI smiles at her and nods.)

EXT. GALLERY. MOMENTS LATER.

REI is smoking cigarette. Watching people passing by. An old man with a dog walks past very very slowly. A beautiful woman walks past quickly. A business man speaking on a hands-free mobile phone walks past. A couple of art students walk by, stop and look inside the gallery, then walk away. REI looks back inside the brightly lit gallery and extinguishes the cigarette. Smoke hits her eyes. She blinks.