“I owe you one, Mickey. You convinced Manny to postpone my guide's exam.”

Pipwolf exclaimed happily, while Mickey fumbled with a lock.

“Who knows when you would have brought me back, otherwise.” he replied, finally managing to get the door open.

The two were happy to finally make it back to Mickey's dimension, but they were greeted by a cry of terror. It was the lady who had seen them disappear from the living room a few hours before and now they were reappearing in her closet.

Mickey and Pipwolf apologized and hurriedly made their way out.

“Would I ever be able to explain to that poor lady what happened?” Mickey chuckled.

But there was no reply—Pipwolf had disappeared again.

There's nothing like coming home and getting back to normal. Mickey was ready to question it all: he could have dreamed the whole thing, he could have imagined all of it.

His thoughts though were interrupted by the doorbell: it was Minnie demanding to know where he'd been.

Mickey didn't know where to start. He didn't know how to explain it to himself, but Minnie pre-empted him.

“I imagine that it's all the fault of the powder compact that I lost last night.” she said. Mickey was flabbergasted to see Minnie take a new compact from her pocket, almost identical to the other one, except for the letter M printed on it, which was now missing.

“A tall hairy guy just gave it back to me, to pay back the debt he said he owed you! Your friend Toppersby even replaced the mirror inside.” Minnie explained as she opened the compact.

Mickey grabbed it abruptly and looked at the mirror, fearing he would find Celantus.

But there was nothing out of the ordinary... apart from the fact that in his hands, he was holding the proof that it was all true: Pipwolf, the Land of the Impossible, Manny and Toppersby! Mickey saw his reflection in a new light, one that reminded him of his childhood, when he still trusted that shiver down his spine, the irrefutable sign of his intuition.

Minnie was bewildered but Mickey returned the compact pretending that he was admiring Toppersby's handiwork.

Minnie agreed, “He even took off that initial on the top. I never told you, but ...”

She couldn't finish her sentence because Mickey completed it for her. “You never liked it! I don't know how I know, but you can call it... intuition!” EXr6287u6NNVz+GYLY+7SBsrcqIjTEksQl6hvkLhtOzogwUEg6k7NKkMkEKPp6LyPax8lT9VnO+uJTeQipvxVw==