There we were, Hector, Stan and I, out in the middle of this field of short brown grass in the rolling foothills just outside of town. There on the hillside was a set of wooden monkey bars like a sideways ladder with some boxlike structure underneath with loose pine planks covering the top. Stan said that when he started to swing on the bars when his foot hit one of the planks, it popped up, and a black and white cat started to run out. But, the board fell back before the cat could get out. He had tried to lift the planks, but they wouldn’t budge. So we all tried to lift them and no luck. So I decided to swing on the bars and my foot came down on the plank and up it popped. As I dropped I caught sight of the black and white cat escaping.

We decided to head back to town. We shared a cab. When I went into my room there was a pair of enormous black panthers that talked to me in a language I couldn’t understand. One of them brandished knives and other sharp, shiny metal objects from where its claws should be. I left quickly heading for Stan’s. When I got there, Stan said that the cat that escaped from under the plank had been there when he got home.

We hopped on a big motorized skateboard and took off for the monkey bars. On the way phantoms of both the black and white cat and the panthers and other catlike creatures appeared around us. When we arrived at the monkey bars, we leaped onto the bars and started swinging. Suddenly we were plunged into the dim cat world. They wanted us to do something for them, and it was up to us to figure out what. Any other alternative seemed unpleasant at best.

I woke up in a cold, dark house. The power was out and my wife had gone to work.