Summary

In trying to avoid questions about time, Mary decides to take up an instrument in "Rock You Like a Hurricane." She picked the guitar and was accompanied by daydreams about being propelled "into the social circle of the bands [she] listened to" (154). After buying the instrument, Mary decided that she needed a teacher, and found a man named Robert who was obsessed with rock music. Her first assignment was to learn the song "Rock You Like a Hurricane." She practiced and was thrilled when Robert played into her daydream, telling her to look up when she's playing "because if you look down, all anyone will see when you're onstage is the top of your head" (158). Buying an instrument was like trying on a new persona, and Mary relates this to her Halloween costumes as a kid...