“Could you explain it to me one more time.” Wilson said, rubbing his eyes. “I know I was only in the bathroom for a moment, but I’m really confused.”

“A dryer came in here, zapped me with a magic ray, and made my clothes feel like sandpaper.” Andrea explained. “Then a cat named Buddy who had laser eyes drove the dryer away and then gave me magic powers.”

Wilson sat for a moment. Andrea knew that, while he was no stranger to tall tales (he told many of his own), this one probably took the cake. Wilson stroked the stubble he wore around his face as Andrea watched and waited for a comment.

“Well, have you tested the magic powers yet?” Wilson asked.

“What?” Andrea half laughed, half stumbled through the word.

“If the magic cat guy…”

“...Buddy…” Andrea interjected.

“Right, Buddy.” Wilson corrected himself. “If Buddy claims he gave you magic powers, shouldn't you at least try them out to see if he was telling the truth?”

It was a stereotypical Wilson thing to say. But, it made sense to Andrea. The only real way to find out if Buddy the blind cat was telling the truth was to actually try to use the “power of the van”, as Buddy had called it.

Andrea went back to the kitchen and grabbed her lacrosse stick. It had been bright and sunny in the morning, a high of 70: perfect lacrosse weather. Andrea was expecting a great day; she had even scored twice in practice against the team's starting goalie. The drive back home wasn't bad either, as the traffic that usually clogged Lafayette Street was nowhere to be seen. Of course, in the time it took her to heat up old spiral noodles at home, it had begun to downpour that classic Stoneport downpour. The joke at Stoneport High School, where Andrea had spent four unfortunate years of her life, had been that the colonial settlement had been named after the stone color the sky turned when it was about to rain, and not after the limestone coastline.

Andrea returned to the dining area, holding her lacrosse stick sheepishly in her hands. Wilson had began to snack on a loose tortilla, as he usually did, which calmed Andrea down some. If there was one person she knew that would be supportive in this situation, it was Wilson. She raised the stick at one of the tables in the dining area; one that Wilson typically reserved for particularly annoying customers.

"Here goes nothing." Andrea said. She concentrated with all her might, and was amazed when a red beam of light shot from her lacrosse stick in the shape of a van, only about the size of a toaster. The table was destroyed instantly, however, by the magical, glowing van. Andrea turned stunned to Wilson, who sat with mouth agape, tortilla bits falling out onto the floor.

"Holy shit." Wilson said aloud. "I totally get the Vandrea thing now."

Andrea gave Wilson a confused look.

"Because it was a van...and you're Andrea..." Wilson explained; Andrea nodded uneasily. Wilson was calmed, but Andrea was freaking out internally.

"I can't believe the cat was right." Andrea said, stunned.

"Try it again." Wilson stated.

Andrea did as Wilson suggested, raising her lacrosse stick yet again. She released another glowing red van onto another unsuspecting table, destroying it too. Andrea looked wide eyed back to Wilson, who was wearing his contemplative face. After a moment, he opened his mouth to speak.

"Why don't you try and do the same thing, but this time without the table destroying." Wilson suggested.

"What do you mean?" Andrea asked.

"Like, try forming a tiny van in your hand or something." Wilson explained. "That always works in the movies."

Andrea looked at the hand that wasn't holding her lacrosse stick. She held it up, so that both her and Wilson could easily see her palm. At first, nothing happened. Perhaps, Andrea thought, the cat had only given the power to her lacrosse stick. She was soon proven wrong however, as a glowing red van, about the size of a matchbox car appeared floating above her hand. Andrea closed her hand over the van, making it disappear, before opening her hand and creating a new van.

"This is really sci-fi Andrea." Wilson said. Andrea agreed, but was also worried. Before this, she had just been a normal girl, living out her life as a cashier/cook at a low-key Mexican restaurant. Could she even use her lacrosse stick at practice anymore, or would she end up crushing other players with mystical vans? Her whole life had just been flipped upside down by a blind tortoiseshell cat. Andrea's legs felt week, like her coach had just made her do 50,000 squats, and she fell into a nearby chair. Wilson shot up out of his seat.

"Woah there Andrea." Wilson spoke. "You alright?"

"My whole life just got flipped upside down Wilson." Andrea explained. "How would you feel?"

"I tell you Andrea, I've experienced a lot in my day." Willson put his hand on her shoulder. "I took a tour of Afghanistan, you know."

"Wilson, you never told me that." Andrea corrected him.

"Whatever," Wilson shrugged it off, "the point is: when I got back, you know what I found?"

Andrea shook her head.

"The McDonald's my mom had taken me and my sisters as a kid had been closed down." Wilson remembered.

"What did you do?" Andrea asked.

"You're looking at it!" Wilson held his arms out-stretched. "My mom used to say: when one door closes, another door opens."

"A lot of people say that Wilson." Andrea said. What the middle-aged restauranteur was saying made sense to Andrea, though. Buddy had told Andrea that she was supposed to save the world. The cat hadn't explained whether that meant the evil dryers who threatened to make all of the clothes in the world uncomfortable, and had stolen the magic out of Andrea's favorite hoodie; or if Buddy had meant some other threat to humanity, something bigger than the dryers. Either way, it was clear to Andrea what she had to do. She stood up from her chair.

"So, what are you gonna do Andrea?" Wilson asked her.

"I'm gonna go make my favorite hoodie soft again." Andrea stated with confidence.