With other people, I was searching the house of a dangerous man when we heard him return. The others escaped, but I had an idea that I could stay behind and observe him without his awareness. I sat in a chair, sure that I would be unobserved.

He saw me the moment he walked in — and behaved as though it were normal for me to be there.

I did not know what to do; I did not know his name. I began to try to catch a cat that I had seen, an activity that he seemed to find unexceptional. I began to wonder who I was to him.

Several times I climbed a ladder that ended in an upside-down V nailed to a rafter and commented that it seemed difficult and rickety, possibly to hide my inability to get off the ladder onto the rafter. The upside-down V was beyond my physical ability to master.

Now I was outside in what I thought to be my old backyard at home, with a single old tree in it. The actual yard had had no trees, but I wondered what had happened to the rest of them as if it had.

My dad came along and offered to drive me. We did not follow a surface road, but a miniature one made of wood that wound through the treetops. It seemed narrower than the wheel base of our van, which made me nervous. At one point, it rose at a 90-degree angle, so that it was like driving up a dry waterfall from the base. At another point, the road split off into an upper and a lower branch. The latter was low and close, but we took it anyway. My dad executed all these moves adroitly, but I was petrified from fear.

There was a house near the exit of the estate, and a crane was swinging another one into place across from it. I took these to be the homes of relatives and did not know why they should clutter our pristine grounds.

Dad and I were riding a train between the cars, but it did not appear to be especially dangerous. It may have been a city or commuter train. It wasn’t safe, however, and I knew the journey was to be a long one, so I moved inside to find a place. The authorities captured my dad and as I was trying to say they had to be gentle with him because of his advanced age, I saw them shove him a bit, then debate that they should not be rough with him because of his age.

I do not know our destination.