Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl Read Free Page A

to the ends of the earth and get my father's thirty-five cents back. And indeed, until I was twenty-one years of age, that was the central concern of my life."
    "And?"
    "That's all. I got over it."
    "That's a very touching story, Professor."
    "Thank you."

CHAPTER 6
Through the Gate

    We had walked all the way to the back side of the grounds. There was an open gate, and a road beyond it.
    "We've come to a gate," I said.
    "So we have," Molly said.
    "I mean, are you allowed to leave the premises?"
    "I don't see anyone stopping us," the professor said.
    "So, we can just ... leave?" I asked.
    "Unless you're tired," the professor said. "As for me, I feel like walking more."
    "Fine by me," I said.
    "Let's go this way," Molly said.
    "What you were saying before, about the voices and all that..."
    "Yes?" Molly said. "Feel free to ask questions."
    "Well, I do have one. You spotted me as a visitor from another existential plane. That is something that just about never happens. How do you know about such things?"
    "Well, it's my belief that things are very different from what they seem. For example, space ... space may not be an illusion—or it may—but it is very much easier to get around than is commonly supposed. I think it's possible to get from here to there in a snap."
    "I came from my plane of existence to Los Angeles on a bus," I said. "It took under two hours."
    "Doesn't surprise me," Molly said. "I have also worked out that people are immortal, or comparatively immortal, so at different times one carries on one's life in various forms and in various places."
    "The Hindus believe this," the professor said.
    "Then I agree with them," Molly said. "And, I believe there is a finite number of persons—this includes the animating principle of whales, bunny rabbits, microbes, and eggplants. So it's interchangeable parts, and everybody gets to play all the roles, given enough time—which may or may not be an illusion, but anyway works quite differently from the way most people think it does. And given enough time, you will meet everybody—at least everybody
you're supposed to meet ... and then ... meet them again."
    "Very sound reasoning," the professor said. "You should come and teach in my college."
    "Wouldn't I have to graduate first?" Molly asked.
    "Yes. They have all these silly rules," the professor said.
    I was having a hard time remembering that I was taking a walk with two officially crazy people. From my limited experience passing between planes of existence, the things they were talking about didn't sound particularly insane—on the other hand, the professor was wearing a dress made out of curtains from some room in the mental hospital and had spent a good part of his life seeking vengeance on some guy who had sold his father a toy that he thought didn't work, and earlier Molly had been telling me about a house where people swing from trapezes with chimpanzeeses.
    "What are your views on interstellar travel and alien species?" the professor asked Molly.
    "Well, given that there are untold billions of stars in the universe, stars like our sun, any of which might have planets, and some incredibly large number of those might have conditions conducive to life, I'm of the opinion it is a dead cert that we are not alone.
Of course, it's hard to get all this stuff to behave in my head, because of being deranged, you know."
    "You should read my book
Are Flying Saucers from New Jersey?
" the professor said.
    "Are they?" I asked.
    "Well, I thought they might be when I wrote it," the professor said. "But now I think possibly not. But I am certain one of the main points where lots of them come together is the airspace above Poughkeepsie."
    "I know I've seen plenty of them," Molly said.
    "Oh, they're up there, all right," the professor said. "And the genius of it is, who would think of looking for them here? People all have the idea that if you want to see UFOs you have to go out in the western desert."
    "I've