What Kip let go, the absence of which allowed Kip to fall into an alternate dimension, was what the Hanthra called the begierd; just as Kip called them Hanthra.

He had first met them during the summer of 1975.

He had recently graduated from High School, and, to celebrate, had proposed to his girlfriend of eleven months, Katrina. She had accepted, and he had screamed like a girl into his pillow when he got home.

He didn't tell his parents; he knew what they would say.