Muffy awoke with a throbbing headache. She had knocked herself out pounding her head on the keyboard. The dreams she had been having were worse than those of her earlier years in semi-captivity.
Muffy was relieved that all that had just occurred was a dream, and that everything is the same as it was at this post:
Message 4872176
"Gotta' get some sleep", she muttered. "But first, I'll watch Seinfeld. Quit whining, Shorty!"
The rest of the evening she spent watching TV and trying to stay awake. Even the sounds of the neighbor upstairs yelling at people out her window didn't bother her.
The thought of '6-19-74' kept tugging at her mind.
"What could it be? Why would a crippled dog have the same number carved into its collar as was written on the slip of paper included in my wicker basket?"
She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep with that on her mind, so she once again did an Internet search. This time, however, she included "dog" in her search. Presto! A news item from the Ottumwa, Iowa newspaper showed up.
It read as follows: "Dateline: Ottumwa, Iowa, 6/19/74. Automobile accident today causes premature labor and delivery of baby. Both parents killed. No identification was found at the scene. The baby was apparently delivered by a passerby who kept the baby after it was born. Authorities are baffled about the disappearance of the family dog. Only one of the dog's legs was found at the scene of the accident."
Stunned, Muffy read and reread the news item. "It was a date! And that baby must be me!", she thought to herself.
She immediately called her friendly travel agent and booked first class accomodations to Ottumwa. She packed a few bags, grabbed 3-legged Shorty, and ran for the door. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she hailed a taxi. Of course, the taxi driver was Norma, who when she spied the suitcases, immediately asked Muffy what she was running away from.
Muffy said, ....
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