“I’m glad you like the question,” said Taryn, dodging Catalog as it darted at her and retreated, all in no space at all, “but what is the answer?”

Silence.

Below her, nothing but a single line, a tightrope made of the entirety of the rest of the universe. The crow sighed.

“One,” it said.

“You wouldn’t happen to know what should be doing here, do you?” It tilted its head at her, its shiny black eye yielding nothing. “Of course not,” she said, still zigging and zagging to the sharp pages snarling at her.

She didn’t have anything with her, her purse had melded with everything else along with the bag and the sugar packet. What else could she do? And who would have thought a talking crow would be of so little help?

“I’m only partially in here with you,” said the crow. “It’s complicated.”

“Did you just hear me think? Wait, never mind, that can wait. No, no, it can’t.” In a quick little jig, Taryn danced around the space, shooing away pages with her hands.

“Where I’m from your thoughts aren’t technically ‘inside’ your head. I told you, it’s complicated. And I’m mostly there, only sort of here. As an observer.”

“Well that’s fantastic,” said Taryn, and, in annoyance, instead of swatting Catalog’s page, she grabbed it and yanked.

As the page tore, streaks of all colors that could be and many that couldn’t leaked from the ripped edges, filling the bubble, pushing on its walls.

“Oh,” Taryn said. “Oh,” and then it was she who lunged, grasping for the glossy sheets, pulling them apart at the binding, shredding them by hand into tiny pieces. Catalog bellowed, but the cheap binding glue could only hold so well.

The line expanded and broadened, back to flat again, and now the crow fluttered its wings, diving and grabbing at the paper. The bubble, awash with the streaks that became shapes that became objects, expanded at a rate she could almost hear.

Now Catalog was nothing more than a front cover and a back one, the bits that had been parts of pages moments before dissolving and disappearing, reforming into vast regions she couldn’t see.

“Ahem,” she heard as she took what was left of Catalog and tore that up too. “You can stop now.”

Alex.

“Right. Since there’s nothing left. So we’re done, right?”

“Just one more thing.”

Until next time…