I am standing on a city sidewalk with X. (a female friend) and we are waiting to meet someone. An older woman dressed in a dark overcoat and a fedora hat approaches us; she is a spy or an agent of some kind who wishes to relay information. She says, "Now I can tell you what I have learned. The secret is . . . ". At the very instant she is about to tell us the secret, a bullet appears out of nowhere and knocks her down, just like a scene out of a cheap detective story. I look out into the street and three taxicabs pull up ominously by the curb where we are standing. The three cabs are painted identically: yellow with a black-and- white checkered trim. Sitting inside are hoodlums or gangsters who are threatening us. "I guess we have to go with them", I say to X. The two of us get into the middle cab and we are taken away. We drive past a corner where a policeman who doesn't seem to notice us is standing. "Just my luck!", I say, "The police don't see you when you need them." After going around the corner, the cab stops, lets me out, and drives off. I am standing in front of a two-story brownstone apartment building. "This is my house!", I say, thinking that I have outwitted my kidnappers. I climb some stairs to the upstairs apartment and enter. The neighbors in the buildings on both sides see me and call out greetings.