raddidge was holding Spot when I came in, "She was here all the time!" Looking up at me from my arms was a white cat with black spots and a completely black face looking at me. He still had his claws and wasn't neutered, also his face wasn't entirely black there was a tiny dusting of white on the lower left of his chin. "Well, I reckon I have another cat. I'm going to call him 'Pepper'."

We discussed what to do about Pepper and Spot. Pepper was at an advantage having claws along with more lustful motivations. raddidge was dead set against Pepper getting declawed but knew Pepper had to be fixed. Even when Pepper hissed at Spot, raising some tension, raddidge remained steadfast.

A little later we went to New Jersey. One of our stops was an open air flea market in south Jersey full of the unusual plants of the Pine Barrens. Toadstools with thin, green stalks impossibly holding up the wide, mottled red caps and strange shrubs were on display. Behind the trays of plants was a thirty gallon aquarium full of water and residing under the surface was a reddish lizard with pebbly skin. One of the rarest creatures of the Barrens, New Jersey's only crocodile who never grew larger than my index finger.

The folks who were running the display announced they were going to be returning all the wildlife to their homes. This troubled me, these plants wouldn't contribute anything back to the Barrens ecosystem and that poor miniature crocodile wouldn't survive a minute against the coons and coyotes because the lizard was born and raised in captivity. As they were pouring out the water, I grabbed the aquarium and said something noteworthy about how I'm going to save this little crocodile.

There was a big leap of logic and continuity that left raddidge and myself on the boardwalkk. In my absence, the boardwalk had been walled in with large glass windows overlooking the ocean. Lots of young revellers were partying the night away as I bulldozed my way through the crush. I lost raddidge's hand and couldn't find her. I stood at the windows looking out over the shore, oily waves were sliding in over the sand. Now and again there would be a strong surge that would leave some unusual sea life flopping, gliding and gasping on the beach. One of the creatures which stood out had a flat head which was half a disc. Its skin was black with purple spots. A nine foot tail with three vertical ridges tipped with bright purple cascaded down from the head's base. Tiny red fish were bouncing on the sand and I could only think of raddidge and hoped she was out there helping the little critters.

Soon I acquired a Virgil to my Dante. He looked like Matt Hardy and gave me the history of the party, the history of the boardwalk and how I'd eventually find raddidge once more. At the end of his tour, he said that once I found my mother then I'd be close to finding my raddidge.

Mom was with a bunch of kids, not acting her age, and tried to get me to join in on the fun. I'm not a fun person. I tell her that I can't find raddidge and she said that raddidge has been trying to call me for the past couple of hours on the white courtesy phone. When I picked up, raddidge was on the other end. "Fifty one, seventy one" was all she said to me.