I found myself standing on a glowing cobblestone path that stretched into a pastel-colored sky, dotted with floating islands made of cotton candy. Each step I took made a soft plink sound, like tapping a xylophone. Ahead, an enormous library hovered, its shelves spiraling upward like a DNA helix, with books flapping their covers like wings and whispering secrets in languages I couldn’t understand.
I stepped inside, but the floor was a giant trampoline, bouncing me toward a chandelier made of jellybeans. A librarian, who looked like a cross between a penguin and my high school math teacher, handed me a book titled How to Swim in Clouds. When I opened it, the pages turned into a swarm of glowing fireflies that spelled out, “Follow the clockwork cat!”
Suddenly, a mechanical cat with gears for eyes leapt from a shelf, sprinting toward a door labeled “Yesterday’s Tomorrow.” I chased it, but the door opened into my childhood backyard, where my old swing set was now a rollercoaster looping through a galaxy of disco balls. The cat jumped onto the rollercoaster, and I followed, only to realize I was now a paper airplane, folding and unfolding with each loop.
Mid-flight, the disco balls started singing opera, and the cat turned into a giant grapefruit that rolled away, laughing. I landed in a field of oversized dandelions that sneezed glitter every time I moved. A voice from nowhere said, “You’re late for the tea party!” I turned to see a table set for tea, but the cups were filled with chocolate syrup, and the chairs were made of soap bubbles that popped when I tried to sit.
Before I could drink the syrup, the ground dissolved into a pool of liquid mirrors, reflecting faces I didn’t recognize. I dove in, and woke up with the taste of cotton candy in my mouth, wondering if I’d ever find that clockwork cat again.