2021-06-24 --- slowly i became aware of my situation, as if awakening from a deep sleep. canvas. straps. hooked into those green stamped metal panels. this is a ... Land Rover! "the bonds that broke napoleon. why? aerodynamics." some chatter drifted in from the cab. how did i get here? as the vehicle sped through the grassy terrain, the lion strapped to the top bounced passively. compared with the 1500 kg steel machine, the lion looked frail, dirty, and weak. in the battle of man versus beast, the beast had lost. but this time, things were different. the land rover fell through a hole in time and landed in a basement. coughing, we got out of the wreck and went upstairs. it was an ordinary suburban house, like something in denver or seattle. the lion looked back at us in the darkness. was anybody here? the lights are off. there were voices of children coming in from the other room. the lion slunk off to investigate. wait a minute. a lion, in a room full of children. this is bad! i ran down to the land rover and grabbed the barbecued baboon leftovers. it was burned and tough and mostly bones by now, but i bet it smelled like food. i ran back up and screamed at the lion. "Hey! No!" i shrieked. he turned and looked dumbly, as if falsely accused. i put the barbecue on the ground and backed away, and he seemed to get the point, gingerly grabbing the roast with the tips of his fangs and retreating to some dark corner to gnaw. ... "yes, the zoo, not the police, the zoo. no, look, it isn't an emergency, but we need someone who knows what they are doing." as my traveling companion was on the phone, my attention wandered to outside. the city stretched out under the orange purple night sky. across the street a squad of militarized police were evicting someone. the screaming was becoming really disturbing. the evictee was being dragged down some concrete steps and as he fell he caught his balance on the officer's assault rifle, which started firing. the other cop just kicked his head and they continued down the stairs. they didn't seem to care where the bullets went? a train rumbled past a streetlamp on elevated tracks carrying several flatbed cars of men and women. they were cheering and raising their rifles in the air. i thought i recognized some of the less popular youtubers. a charming place. there were four little girls living here, drawing in the dark and playing patty cakes with us. who knows where the parents were. they sure didn't. well eventually someone showed up who knew what they were doing. "yo this the lion?" they had a couple men tied with ropes behind their back. "yeah, but..." we looked at each other and back to the gang in the street. "you better get it." the gang leader jutted his chin threateningly at one of the men, and heaved him toward us. he was a sleazy tramp with no shirt, stylized tattoos all over his upper body, a long mustache, reddish brown dreadlocks, some kind of miniature hat which i will not name as i am not a hat expert. the other was a roundly fat bald man, literally a ball, in nothing but his underwear, probably retarded. "at your service. Leland leMontagnon, lion hunter extraordinaire." the mustachioed creep bowed, or at least tried to. he looked annoyed at the ropes. "i, i don't think that's what we meant..." my companion protested. the gangsters, apparently satisfied with the situation, ambled off. he looked up at us with a grin, shivering. "can i come in?" the other guy just farted. we got them indoors where it was warmer, and now we just had a bigger herd of cats to deal with. Leland cleared his throat and began to speak. "so have either of you skinned a lion before? i'll have you know i actually am quite experienced in this sort of thing- ow!" my companion hit him in the ear. "look mister, i don't know what you were thinking, but we are trying to save this lion, not skin it." he seemed genuinely surprised. "now i can either kill you right here, or you can cooperate." that seemed to shut him up. i had gotten a pair of x-acto knives out of the junk drawer, and was holding one at his back, preparing to cut the ropes, which were a jumbled mess of old leather and fur, but the man kept moving and struggling. i sighed and moved to the coffee table where there was more light. i carefully removed the blade from each knife and put it back in the little plastic carrying case, then set the encased blades on the table in front of him. in the light from the table lamp he looked as weak and dirty and frail as the tranquilized lion had. one of the little girls next to the couch started crying. the fat rotund retarded man had rolled his way over and was pushed up against her. he was ... trying to hump her? "Hey, stop that! you guys are impossible!" i threw the knife handles down and grabbed him, pulling on the bare fat flesh, but he wouldn't budge, he just kept humping and laughing. i kicked him in the balls, which were quite exposed, protected by only a thin sheet of black cloth. he kept laughing and humping, and the pain seemed to make him enjoy it more. my traveling companion came over and we both heaved at the rotund mass, finally managing to roll it away, where it sat laughing and crying. now four crying girls, a lion, two mad men, my traveling companion and myself, in a dark suburban living room, with gunfire and helicopters in the distance. "we've got to get out of here. this place sucks." my traveling companion said. i nodded at her in agreement. "time to use that magic pocketbook of yours again, but this time i hope you know what you're doing." "yes, i think i do. come over here, and watch." she raised the small patch of dark green-black silk toward the lamp. there was a single stitch in the center, with a needle still hanging off it by the thread. she grabbed the needle and pushed it back end first into the cloth. the walls shuddered. "i've just got to get this thread exactly back through here..." she pushed again and a white shimmer flickered over the house. "can't quite get it." she backed out and there was a pop and suddenly it felt a lot quieter somehow. "let me try." i held out my hand, and she reluctantly placed the cloth and then the needle on my palm. it was harder than i expected to get the needle to go in, like it was pushing against a knot in the fabric, so i turned it around to use the sharper end. and it went through! but was that right? the stitch was still there. i had just made a new stitch. a stitch in time. i pulled at the loop of string with my pinky, and it got bigger. there was a whole different world in there, through the loop, one full of music and sunlight. the lion had dropped his barbecued bones and was staring, cat eye pupils like slivers in the sudden light. we all grabbed on with our pinkies and pulled, and the loop got bigger, and bigger, until it seemed to fill the room. the lion clambered to his feet and leapt into the light.