THEN THAT ONE TIME

The brown squares in the carpet fell silently away and the cool numbness crept up Levan’s arms, grabbing hungrily at his face and neck. Levan stared hard at the carpet and wondered how he would get to the bathroom without falling into the new voids.
“Where will I go if I fall down there?” he thought. “I’ll have to hold it awhile and maybe I can get to the toilet after the holes go away.”
Levan slumped back into the recliner and reached for the lamp switch. Just as he was about to switch it off, a voice resonated through his head.
“Don’t turn that off, dammit! I’m trying to read over here!”
“Who was that?” Levan asked. He looked around the room but saw only the comforting silhouettes of elephants and heavy sea kelp. “The other animals must be hiding in that big orange ice cream truck.”
“You idiot!” the voice cried out again. “There aren’t any damn animals in here! That’s the Discovery Channel!”
“Interesting.”
Levan’s mind spun answers to why the voice was trying to convince him that the TV was even on.
“I thought I left that TV back in the desert with the bright sun burning out its receptors.”
Kile got up angrily from the couch and went over to where Levan sat. He waved a hand in front of Levan’s eyes. Nothing. No movement at all.
Kile, enraged, grabbed the lamp and threw it across the room, smashing it. Levan looked up into the open sky just in time to see an atom bomb go off. It began melting all the clouds, turning them into cotton ball-sized pink thingies. Levan held up his fist to pledge his allegiance to the pinkness. Then the sky bleached out and everything went quiet. How nice.
Just before unconsciousness seized him, Levan heard that mad voice again.
“The next time you want to hang out, FORGET IT!”
“That’s too bad, fella.” Levan said driftingly. “It’s so nice out here.”