(The title is from The Thief of Bagdad. Grand Vizier Jaffar, played by Conrad Veidt, dramatically summons the sea wind to do his evil bidding.)

I was living with my parents in a trailer in a sweet location, probably with trees and gardens. The word seemed to be “idyllic.”

It became windy and windier, and the wind finally tore the trailer away. It felt like we were traveling smoothly down the highway, but I knew the stop would destroy the trailer and possibly kill us.

It didn’t.

We found ourselves in a city or town, in a narrow, darkened alley or street, the opposite of everything I had wanted or known. I was devastated. One of us found a window with a view of a field and trees, but the trees were weedy bird of paradise.

The wind took us away again on the same smooth ride. We saw we were headed toward water. I know everything we had would be ruined. I searched frantically for Pudge to try to save her but even after we stopped (and yet somehow ended up back on land) I couldn’t find her. I panicked and cried over the loss of my helpless innocent cat.

We were blown away again, and during this journey I found Pudge not only unharmed but dry and clean as though she had never been wet.

Next we were blown toward a sunny hillside. “Great,” my mother said. “Figures we’d be blown into and down the only hill in Illinois.” I started to tell her there are hills in southern Illinois in Shawnee National Forest, but it occurred to me a moment of fear and anger is not the time to educate someone.

As we bumped down the hill, I noticed how steep it was — steeper than any hill I’d seen.

I wondered how the trailer and we had survived these journeys and crashes. I kept hoping we’d land gently in a sheltered spot where the wind couldn’t grasp us.

We sailed toward a passing freight train in town, but curved off and didn’t hit it. That was a relief, but there was another track with a train in the next direction, and another in a third direction. It’s like we were in a triangle of trains, but I couldn’t work out how that could be possible in such a tight area without them hitting one another.

I knew at some point the trailer must disintegrate and we must die.