the cat

by corinne delmonico

peter pan woke up from a curious dream in which he had been a cat chased by a giant mouse. peter did not set much store by dreams and did not regard them either as prophecies of future events, or as keys to his own personality. he did not have much of a personality, and did not think overmuch of future events, preferring to take life one day at a time. but the dream about being a cat perplexed him, and he could not stop thinking about it as he made his morning cup of instant coffee. as he was sipping his coffee, he idly picked up the reader’s digest, a subscription to which had been purchased for him as a birthday present by his court appointed guardian, mr william wilson. his eye fell on an article entitled, “do you need a new consciousness?” peter became so engrossed in the article that he let his cup of coffee grow cold. this is just the ticket, he thought, this is exactly what i need - a new consciousness. on his phone, he tappped in the question: how do i find a new consciousness? but the did not find the answers were very informative. some of the answers were: grind your monkey like coffee. ? this sounded like something to do with romance, and peter was not a romance person. steal things off other people’s desks at work. peter worked at a startup fast food establishment, and he and his fellow employees did not have desks do not let your little liver pills scatter. what was a little liver pill? did it make a big liver smaller, or a big liver smaller. peter did not trust the answers he was being given. not for the first time he began to wonder if his life, and the universe, were controlled by an evil clown. and did the evil clown who controlled the universe have a name? he decided to go out in the street and ask the first person he saw if they knew the name of the evil clown. but once out in the street - south broadway - he lost his nerve and could bring himself to accost anyone and ask the question. he decided to back to his room and try to fall asleep and encounter again the giant mouse who had been chasing him and ask the mouse about the clown. but on his way back to his apartment he was arrested on an outstanding warrant for an undisclosed crime. he was brought before a stern magistrate, who combined elements of the giant mouse and the evil clown.