I have been gone a long time. I am coming home, back to my old neighborhood. It is night, and rainy and cold. But Won-Ton is missing. Somehow she got out and has been gone for a while. I don't know where she is or how long it will take her to come back, but I will not shut my door to her. I find some blankets and I lie down in the gutter on the corner across the street from my building so she can find me easily if she comes by. In the cold, rainy darkness I fall asleep on the street.
I am awakened soon after by a cat nosing me. It is Won-Ton, and she very shyly pokes her head under the blanket and crawls in next to me, snuggling against my tummy. We fall asleep in the cold together, exhausted.
Then something spooks her and she runs into an open doorway and into someone's flat. It is J&R's apartment, and J. has been letting her stay there off and on while I've been gone. He doesn't know she is mine, and it takes some convincing for him to let her go. Finally she comes with me and we go across the street and into my building.
I have been gone for such a long time that no one in the building knows who I am. They are surprised and perturbed to see me there, a stranger. Won-Ton jumps down from my arms onto the floor in the hallway and begins exploring as we make our way up to my apartment. Even though we are reunited, I feel uneasy. Nothing is right, and there is so much work to do. It is still dark and cold and raining.
.