No matter. If I couldn’t think here… I began running… to the left. Something about this place was messing with my head, and it seemed impossible to consider the process while I was a part of it. I had to get away in order to think straight, to determine what was going on.

I was across the bar and into that interface area where the painted rocks and trees became three-dimensional. I pumped my arms as I dug in. I head the wind without feeling it.

Nothing that lay before me seemed any nearer. I was moving, but Luke began singing again.

I halted. I turned, slowly, because it sounded as if he were standing practically beside me. He was. I was only a few paces removed from the bar. Luke smiled and kept singing.

“What’s going on?” I asked the Caterpillar.

“You’re looped in Luke’s loop,” it replied.

“Come again?” I said.

It blew a blue smoke ring, sighed softly, and said, “Luke’s locked in a loop and you’re lost in the lyrics. That’s all.”

“How’d it happen?” I asked.

“I have no idea,” it replied.

“Uh, how does one get unlooped?”

“Couldn’t tell you that either.”

I turned to the Cat, who was coalescing about his grin once again.

“I don’t suppose you’d know —” I began.

“I saw him come in and I saw you come in later,” said the Cat, smirking. “And even for this place your arrivals were somewhat… unusual — leading me to conclude that at least one of you is associated with magic.”

I nodded.

“Your own comings and goings might give one pause,” I observed.

“I keep my paws to myself,” he replied. “Which is more than Luke can say.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s caught in a contagious trap.”

“How does it work?” I asked.