• tab The golden hands on a large pocket watch read 11:00pm. They told her she should be fast asleep, but the little girl with a gold ribbon in her hair could not sleep. This night was the bookend of an uneventful day. After only half-heartedly enjoying the spectacles of a travelling circus, she had gone to a fancy dress store, Petit Lulu, where she had seen so many pretty dresses. She could not bring herself to choose just one. Merchandise to her left; merchandise to her right; she exited the store empty handed. The girl refused to let her day end without some consequence to mark it worthy of her having woken up in the first place; she felt owed. Lying in bed, warming the pocket watch in her hands, she watched shadows of the fog outside creep across the furniture in her room. Then, a most peculiar cat-man who appeared to have lost his way, stumbled out of her closet. Realizing the opportunity to go on the escapades she had hoped for had just fallen out of her closet of unmentionables, the girl propositioned the inter-dimensional traveller: her watch in exchange for two adventures. The cat-man admired the watch’s golden sheen for a moment and obliged her offer. He whipped out a rusty old key and stepped into the little girl’s toy chest. As she saw his striped coat disappear into a starry darkness she held her breath, closed her nose and followed him in.
    tab Splat! A girl and a cat covered in malodorous muck. The girl looked up and saw Royal guards rushing out of towering parapets and thought, “My first time in a castle and I enter through the royal mud hole.” Guards helped the girl out of the sludge and hurried her up a flight of stairs. As she glanced back she saw the cat-man shake mud off his trousers and walk towards a small ivy covered structure with a hanging sign reading “Space Cat Café”. Without warning the girl was hurled through an iron door and told she had to help their Prince break the spell. With those cryptic instructions lingering in the air the door was slammed shut. A pig in royal garments was sulking in the corner. Assuming this was their beleaguered Prince the girl wondered aloud where his crown had gone. Overhearing her musings the pig Prince gave out a resigned sigh and waved his hoof in the direction of his bed and closet. Rolling up her sleeves she dove into the mess of muddy polka dot underpants, half eaten lunches and fitness magazines. The pig sat back and watched with feigned interest. Finally, she found a dented crown at the head of his bed and, plucking eggshells and magazine subscriptions from her hair, handed the tiny headwear to the pig.
    tab The next morning a royal appearance was held in celebration of the crown’s return. Sitting beside the pig Prince in the royal box, the girl looked out onto a sea of people below. Visions of grandeur floated through her head: Now was the time for her to say big things, important grown-up things. Standing up to her full height she opened her mouth but a squeal rung through the air. Looking behind her she saw the pig waving, squealing and generally making a spectacle of himself. After a moment of silence the crowd burst into rapturous applause. With a sigh she kissed the pig on the snout… no transformation. Grabbing Space Cat who was sipping tea near the box door and eyeing the general commotion with amusement, she left in a huff. The girl had decided she had had enough of this place and its celebration of silliness. Her kiss had broken the spell and as she and the Cat stepped into the unlocked box door portal behind the throne, everyone in the kingdom turned back into pigs.
    tab Tumbling into green pastures, “Finally” the girl thought, “we’re not landing onto any trouble”. Nothing seemed amiss until a flock of seagulls flew past her knees and a small nimbus cloud enveloped her body. Batting away the cloud with manic arm waving, she then saw Space Cat a few feet away peering at the ground. Standing next to him she realized that it was not ground but hundreds of feet of air and atmosphere, which rolled past the cat’s gaze, as they stood on the edges of what appeared to be a floating island. Citizens of this island greeted the dishevelled travellers with cordial handshakes and ‘How do you do’s. Then a wind blew from the East and the citizens raised the two into the air in joyous commotion, carrying them as exalted guests. As they paraded into town the wind picked up from the West and the travellers were carried high into the air and flung into jail, as if the crowd had just caught two suspicious, possible near-do-wells. Hair in a mess, her favourite ribbon lost, a weary girl sat on the cold floor with a resigned sigh. Kneeling down beside her Space Cat undid the gold ribbon around his neck, brushed back hair from the girl’s face and tied it neatly in place. Through her prison window bars she could see the inner happenings of the town.
    tab There was joyous, frenzied buying from stores on the east side of the town bazaar; large sun hats, wide televisions and gargantuan Flock-Drawn metal carriages were all on display. Within minutes the eastern winds twisted around and cut through the streets westerly; people threw out or abandoned all their purchases and franticly mobbed around stores on the western side of the bazaar which sold tiny hand-held electronics and Single-Bird-Drawn, plastic coaches. Every hour cleaners would haul the clutter of products off the streets and throw it all down large steel chutes on the outskirts of town. The foundation of the island itself was made up of the townspeople’s collected garbage. Considering the peoples’ tendencies toward manic spending, three out of four economists agreed theirs was the most profitable marketplace in the clouds; however, some townspeople swore the island flew lower and lower everyday as the mass of waste grew and grew. The girl noticed the wind’s drastic effect on the attitudes of the people. With one hand she motioned to a guard, with the other she licked her thumb and stuck it in the air. A moment passed and just as the guard made to leave she nodded her head and gave him a swift kick in the shins through the barred door. There was a pregnant pause and a worried cat. With a snort he released the travellers from their prison and gave them a pat on the back for their gumption. Not ones to tempt their good timing, they hurriedly left their hosts before the South Eastern winds died out. The girl had had her fill of the flighty, fickle people and their nation in the sky.
    tab A soft click was heard back in the girl’s darkened room followed by two loud thuds as the cat with the striped suit and the girl with a gold ribbon in her hair, tumbled out of her unlocked dress closet. Quickly righting himself, the cat-man brushed his coat off with his gloved hands while the girl looked about the room, familiarizing herself with the worn bookcases, and the well-loved mice dolls that eyed her blankly from her bed. Space Cat coughed into his fist as his other hand opened palm up; shoving both hands into her dress she excavated its pockets searching for the golden timepiece. She extended her hand towards the cat gesturing for him to be patient; as she had seen her father and other adults do with street vendors as they riffled for loose change in their pockets. Then with a quick motion she pushed Space Cat backwards into the open portal behind him. Falling into a starry blackness his words could be heard fading into oblivion, “Treacherous girl!”
    tab She knew he’d be back.