chapter 3 oh liquid love snapshots at midnight : an obese woman with a stun gun curbing a poodle , an older gay couple power-walking in designer sweats , a college girl pedaling a mountain bike - trailing tresses of perm-fried hair and a blur of red heat ; televisions buzzing inside hotels and homes , sounds of water heaters and washing machines , wind rattling sycamore leaves and whistling through fir trees , a rat leaving his nest in a palm tree - claws skittering down the trunk .