I'm working for MacTemps again, and working in Washington D.C./New York City, which are apparently the same place. I have a hiuge conference table for a desk with hundreds of piles of paper on it. All I remember is sitting at the table, doing nothing, and staring at the piles. I think "I was never that good at this job before, but now I'm doing good work."
Rick offers to help me get all of my baggage (which of course is an unimaginable pile of bags of all types, from suitcases to piles of LPs wrapped in plastic bags) into the car, which is several blocks away. I offer to go get the car and bring it to the things, but he says it's just as easy to walk to the car. This begins to take forever.
I'm carrying a stepladder across a huge highway, it's bulky and hard to carry. Suddenly there is a huge black bear in fornt of me. It becomes angry, and I realize that I'm near a dumpster that it considers it's food source. I begin backing away, holding the stepladder in front of me like a shield. I keep backing into more dumpsters. There are an impossible number of dumpsters out on these streets.
The bear is chasing me, taking swipes at me with it's huge paws -- claws out. It's roaring with it's tongue out, and I keep thinking that there's no way I can outrun a black bear... even if I was running forwards.
I've fallen on the sidewalk, and I'm waiting for the bear to kill me, or whatever. But then he's gone. I get up and look around and am pulled out of the way of a man walking briskly by with a face that has feline characteristics. Someone I can't see tells me to watch it--he's a lion. I realize that many of the pedestrians walking the street around me are lions, and I'm in the lion part of town.
The lions have changed into people, and they walk the streets and live people lives, but they're still lions. They're very dangerous, they will eat you up.
I start walking, looking to get out of this neighboorhood. The lions seem to get more and more numerous. It's getting dire, and I duck into a doorway. Looking around, trying to get my bearings I realize that everyone in the place has lionish features. A surly tawny man playing slots, a couple mean looking people playing poker. A scantily clad lioness lady serving drinks. I'm in a lion casino, and I'm in a lot of trouble. Anything could happen in here.
I get the hell out of there by unspecified means.
Back at the MacTemps bar or party, I'm talking to a cocktail waitress or co-worker, I'm not sure. I'm telling her about how freaked out I was by all the lions.
She gets sad, and angry. She can't believe I don't understand how it is for the lions, having to live here and how horrible it is. I realize that she's a tiger, living incognito in the world, working for a temp agency. She's so beautiful and fragile and tragic, I just want to talk to her, to know her. But I have to go outside.
Kathy and I are outside. "Where are the dogs?" she says. Jen Ford is smoking a cigarette and says to us, "Oh don't worry, I got them a walk" and gestures over to a parking lot.
I see Yoshi and Tsuki run by, chasing something. They'e pulling another dog behind them who is holding their leashes, and riding a skateboard. We run franticallly after them, yelling their names.
I tell Kathy that I don't have any treats. She doesn't have any either. How can we get them to come back? I realize I have a flashlight in my pocket, which I pull out and turn on, to get them to chase the beam.
Yoshi immediately runs toward me from across the street, nearly getting hit by a few cars, which all slow down. I grab his collar. Tsuki is not as interested in the beam, so she starts running in circles in the street, almost being hit a few times.
I yell her name, and she comes to me. She jumps into my arms and want's to be held like a baby, like she does when she's scared.
Everybody's safe.