As Michael drew closer she prepared for the barrage of questions she had for him. ‘Where were they?’…‘How did they get there?’…And ‘What’s up with the Easter bunny impersonation?’ But Michael never slowed as he approached her and she soon realized he intended on running straight past.

As if sensing her impending questions Michael held up his hand as he ran by. “Not now Mary Anne, I’m late.” He said, rushing past her in a cloud of dust.

“Mary who?…What?…Michael…wait!” she exclaimed, now more confused than ever. Maria spun around and saw with some surprise that there was a structure there that hadn’t been there before. And Michael was heading straight for it.

Something about the structure looked vaguely familiar, but Maria couldn’t place where she’d seen it before. It was dome-like, round and white, the beams holding it together making a series of rectangular shapes across its surface. She started running towards it, watching as Michael disappeared through a door in front.

*****

When Maria walked through the door of the dome she was surprised to find that Michael was nowhere in sight. But what surprised her even more was the way the room was decorated. There was a heart-shaped bathtub in the corner and a huge bed in the middle of the room. Satin and silk materials were draped from the ceiling, giving the room a slightly less than G-rated atmosphere. “Leave it to Michael to bring me someplace like this!” she said, and turned to go back outside. But the door was gone. “Perfect.” She said, trying to figure out what she was going to do next. Her eyes scanned the walls of the dome but there was no way that she could find out of the room. ‘Just like a Genie in a bottle’ she thought to herself, her frustration mounting.

Flopping down on the bed her eyes happened on a key sitting on the nightstand. Picking it up she wondered what it could possibly be for. Something triggered her memory and she scanned the walls again until she found what she was looking for, a keyhole in the middle of one of the walls. Placing the key in the lock she turned it, hoping to see part of the wall open up to a way out of there. But instead, something moved on the floor. Maria watched in amazement as a portion of the floor lifted, revealing a secret passageway. That was only a foot wide. Kneeling down to the hole she could see stairs leading downward. ‘Now how am I supposed to get down there?’ She thought to herself, fighting back the tears of frustration that she refused to shed. Plopping to the floor in utter frustration Maria tried to think what she should do. She looked around the room to see if there was anything else she might have missed the first time when she spotted a glass sitting on another table. Getting back to her feet she walked across the room and picked it up, recognizing it’s contents as an Alien Blast, one of the drinks she frequently made the customers at the Crashdown Café where she worked with Liz. The glass was cool and covered with condensation, making Maria realize how thirsty she was so she took a sip. Then another. Then another yet again. Of course it took her a few moments to realize that by the third sip the glass was so big that she could barely lift it. But the glass wasn’t getting bigger, Maria was getting smaller! She dropped the glass as she continued to shrink smaller and smaller, panicking at the thought that she would shrink into oblivion. But her reduction slowed to a stop when she was small enough to walk down the dark passageway in the floor and after Michael once again.