I had been told

to just wait at home, and they would come and get me, to take me to a group which specialized in dealing with such tourists as myself.....tourists from another reality. I was sitting on my front porch in mid-morning, when a horse-cab stopped at the curb, and a cheerful sort of fellow stepped down with a sheet of paper in hand.....peering at the paper through wire-rimmed spectacles, he found my name, and asked if I was ready to go get started on my adventure. I told him that I was as ready as I would ever be.....and that I was in his hands. We climbed in the cab, and the driver steered us down the cobbles into a boulevard, and on into increasing traffic.....we rode a while, and entered a finer part of town, stone and brick buildings with imposing faces passed by.....we entered a court through iron gates, and stepped down before marble steps leading into an arched doorway carved about in a fanciful floral style.

The doors were opened for us as we approached, and we entered into a nicely decorated hall, to be greeted by a stately lady of some years....she waved us into a sitting room of some splendor, and indicated that we should wait there. We sat, and in a short time, three bewigged and dark-robed gentlemen, looking like members of some judiciary, or perhaps like university dons, entered the room and sat themselves down in three ornate chairs behind a long table of gleaming waxed woods. The central official studied his papers for a moment, and then addressed me, asking if I was in fact the person who had contracted with a certain adept known to them in a far place to the purpose of being transported and translated from that place to this place, here and now. I replied that I was, and that I was very well pleased thus far with the performance of said contracted obligations, etc.....There were smiles and nods all around, and my guide said that now I could be left in the hands of the Tourist Board, and he took his leave. The chief of the Board called for tea to be brought, and we settled down to business.....