Chapter Four: Caitlin's Family Reunion

After Audrey placed the lamp high on the shelf, she scooped up the four captives and placed them within a container that had a bathroom, beds, and a table and chairs. She shut the lid on the container, and placed it on a lower level of the same shelf the lamp was on. Audrey turned on the television, and tuned it in to a disk golf game.

"Watch this game, and try to see if you're as good as these players!" said Audrey. "I'm surprised you're so good! Disk golf isn't as popular back on Thanatar!"

"My mom's sister ended up on Dakadania when she was a kid, after running away from home. That's where she met my Uncle Richard, the boy who grew up to become the man she eventually married."

"Are you serious?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah!" said Caitlin. "So they got all of us kids into playing disk golf because they got good at it when they were on Dakadania. Funny thing though, I never believed in Dakadania when I was growing up, I always thought my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Richard were making it all up!"

Meanwhile, within the plastic container, Tony and Phillip paced back and forth as Derek and Peter watched.

"Have any of you ever broken out of this container?" Tony asked.

"I know it can be done," Derek replied, "the guys who were here before me were able to do it."

"Have you tried it yourself successfully?" Tony asked.

"No," said Derek, "but I know it can be done. I would advise only doing it when Audrey and Caitlin are away from the dorm for an extended period of time."

"You have to be absolutely sure they're gone!" said Peter.

"I noticed Caitlin chewing gum," said Phillip. "Tony, don't make it obvious why we need it, but we're going to need Caitlin to leave us with a piece of gum that we can use to climb the wall to reach the top shelf!"

"Derek," said Tony, "explain the technique those other captives taught you for getting out of this container!"

"It takes two of us, and you climb up the airholes and knock the lid up at the corner." said Derek. "You won't be able to un-do the other four sides, but you won't need to, because there should be just enough space for one person to climb up and out."

"Thanks, bro!" said Tony, hugging Derek.

"Can you answer me one question?" Derek asked.

"Yeah, go for it!" Tony replied.

"If you really created this world as a comic book artist, and a time traveler approached you and gave you a magic lamp that could take you anywhere, why would you choose Dakadania? There are so many other places you could've chosen!"

"I thought I could work the system," Tony replied. "In my graphic novel, there were two Dakadanian girls named Christine and Alicia. I figured that since I created them, I knew them well enough that I could manipulate them and get better treatment. Of course, things didn't go as planned, and we got captured by Audrey and Caitlin instead!"

"Who would you rather get swallowed by out of those two?" Derek asked.

"Swallowed?" Tony asked. "I'm a survivor! I created this place out of my imagination! I can't get swallowed!"

"Looks like he's living in denial!" said Peter. "They both are!"

"Sooner or later, every last one of us is going to end up inside the belly of a Dakadanian girl!" said Derek. "I've already accepted my fate, I was living on borrowed time as it was, so this extra time I had here was worth it!"

"If I can reach that lamp," said Tony, "I still have two wishes left! I can break all four of us out of here!"

"How will you do that?" Phillip asked. "You know how temperamental that lamp is! On your first wish, it brought you here to Dakadania and the lamp stayed behind, leaving you with no way to escape!"

"That's true!" said Tony. "But what if we wished for a vehicle of some type?"

'A flying saucer!" said Phillip. "Remember that comic you did about those people who were traveling around in that flying saucer?"

"Yes!" Tony replied. "That was a prelude to 'Planet of the Titans' before I got around to working on the actual graphic novel. In the final draft, I changed it to a space plane in the future."

"Wish for one of those, and we're home free!" said Phillip.

"Yes, but only if we can manage to convince Caitlin to leave a piece of the gum she's been chewing so we have a way to scale the wall!"

Meanwhile, Caitlin was studying the game on television with Audrey.

"To tell you the truth, I think I'm better than any of the people they've showed so far." said Caitlin.

"So your Aunt and Uncle were here when they were kids?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah, why?" Caitlin replied.

"Every day, kids from fifty years in the past all the way to fifty years in the future are pulled through portals to Dakadania." said Audrey. "Now, every day the period of fifty years ago moves one day farther in the future."

"What are you saying?" Caitlin asked.

"I'm saying your Aunt and Uncle are probably here right now, on Dakadania!" Audrey replied.

"That's so cool!" said Caitlin. "And they would have no knowledge of who I am, but I already know everything about them!"

Audrey got up and went to the computer. "What are their full names?"

"Cindy Thompson is my Aunt, and my Uncle's name is Richard Dugan!" Caitlin replied.

Within a brief span of time, Audrey found them. "I've located them! They live across town, but we can get there on the monorail!"

"Let me talk to them!" said Caitlin. "My Aunt Cindy first!"

Audrey manipulated the control console until a girl's face appeared on the monitor.

"Hello?" the girl said.

"Hi, I'm Caitlin! I'm your future niece! I'm your sister's daughter!"

"Are you kidding me?" said Cindy. "I've heard of relatives connecting here, but I never thought it would happen to me!"

"The whole time I was growing up, you told me about Dakadania, but I never believed you!" said Caitlin.

"How good are you at disk golf?" Cindy asked. "If there's one thing I would teach my nieces and nephews, is to practice until you're a champion! You can live like a god here if you're good at disk golf!"

"I'm the best, Aunt Cindy!" Caitlin replied.

"Give me your address, and I'll come over on the monorail!" said Cindy.

"I'll do that!" said Audrey, and she typed out the address and texted it to Cindy. "You should have it now!"

"I'll be there really soon!" said Cindy, and the computer monitor went blank.

"This is so exciting!" said Caitlin. "I'm actually going to meet my Mom's sister when she was my age!"

Less than twenty minutes later, Cindy showed up with her boyfriend Richard. Cindy had a plastic container in her hand with captives inside, and rang the doorbell. Audrey opened the door, and Caitlin hugged Cindy.

"I brought my captives over so we could celebrate!" said Cindy. "We can have a swallow fest!"

Caitlin went and got the captives that were in the container owned by Audrey.

"When I first got here, me and Audrey caught two of them, but we are registered as co-owners." said Caitlin.

Caitlin dumped out her captives onto a table, and Cindy dumped hers out there, too. Tony, Phillip, Derek and Peter were greeted by Cindy's four captives.

"Captives," said Audrey, "introduce yourselves to Cindy's captives!"

"I'm Tony," said Tony, "and this is my friend Phillip."

"I'm Gary," said an obese man, "and this is my brother Jason." Jason was slightly overweight, but in better shape than Gary.

Tony shook hands with Gary and Jason. Two other men approached Tony.

"I'm Bobby!" said a tall skinny younger man.

"I'm Mike!" said a shorter, muscular man.

Derek and Peter introduced themselves to Gary, Jason, Bobby, and Mike.

"How can you be sure you're my niece?" Cindy asked. "You have me at a disadvantage."

"My mother Macie is your older sister, and your mother Hazel is my maternal grandmother," said Caitlin. "Like I was telling Audrey, you and Uncle Richard taught me about Disk Golf from a young age, to the point where I became a master at it! Funny though, I never believed in Dakadania until I arrived here!"

Cindy gripped Richard's hand tighter at hearing Caitlin's verification that she and Richard would successfully carry their relationship back to Thanatar after leaving Dakadania.

"How good are you?" Cindy asked.

"She just hustled someone at the disk golf park nearest to our dormicile!" said Audrey.

"Back home, nobody could beat me!" said Caitlin.

Cindy tapped the pile of tokens with her right foot. "What's the story with all these tokens?"

"We found a lamp that grants wishes when we caught two captives together," said Caitlin. "Audrey wished for a thousand tokens. Do you want to make a wish?"

Audrey retrieved the lamp from high up on the top shelf and handed it to Cindy.

"You just rub the lamp and make a wish!" said Audrey.

Cindy rubbed the lamp and said, "I wish for my relationship with Richard to grow stronger when we return to Thanatar!" Cindy looked at Richard and smiled.

"You just wasted a wish!" said Caitlin. "I think each person only gets a total of three wishes!"

"I just wanted to make sure!" said Cindy. "Maybe the reason my relationship with Richard stayed so strong in the future is because I made that wish!"

"You said something about a swallow fest," said Caitlin, "is that a real thing, or just a term you made up?"

"It's real," said Cindy. "When people have enough captives to do it, they get together and have a swallow fest."

"Do we have enough captives?" said Caitlin. "I've never swallowed one before!"

"Not even back on Thanatar?" Cindy asked. "I swallowed one of my Mom's captives before I came here."

"No, not even on Thanatar!" said Caitlin.

"Well, pick one of my captives out, and give it a shot!" said Cindy.

Caitlin approached the captives. Out of Cindy's four captives, Gary and Jason were trembling, but Bobby and Mike were unafraid.

"I don't want to pick one who looks afraid!" said Caitlin.

"Well, they're all afraid!" said Cindy. "Wouldn't you be if you found yourself trapped in a world of titanic teenagers who wanted to devour you?"

"I guess you're right!" said Caitlin, and she picked Bobby, the skinnier younger man. "I don't want one who is too big, this one is skinnier!"

"Now hold him above your mouth and drop him onto your tongue." said Cindy.

"You might want to give him a farewell message!" said Audrey.

With one hand Caitlin held Bobby, and with the other hand she took out her piece of gum and stuck it on the wall next to the shelf where the captives were kept. "You're about to embark on an epic one-way journey to the depths of my teenage belly!" said Caitlin to the (to her) two-inch tall man, and she dropped him onto her waiting tongue. The fruity smell of the bubble gum Caitlin had been chewing washed over Bobby as Caitlin forced him to the back of her mouth, and she quickly swallowed him. When he was safely past her gullet and down her esophagus, Caitlin stuck her tongue out, as if to prove her victory. The other giants in the room started clapping.

"That was the fastest I've ever seen a newbie swallow a captive!" said Cindy. "Are you sure you haven't had practice at this?"

Inside Caitlin's belly, a battle for survival was taking place. Bobby was trying to conserve his air, knowing that his efforts at survival would be in vain. He punched and kicked at the stomach walls, but to no avail. He was swimming around in what remained of what Caitlin had eaten for lunch.

Caitlin lifted her blouse, revealing her tummy. "I think I can feel him struggling inside of me!"

"Yeah, that can go on for 35 or 45 minutes!" said Cindy. "It just makes the victory more satisfying!"

Tony motioned to the piece of gum stuck to the wall, and made sure Phillip saw it. Phillip acknowledged that he was aware of the gum's location, but the two of them tried not to draw attention to it.