I found this little story on the Internet. It's certainly strange
but I enjoyed it - hope you do too ... Sue

                   Aventyrsklubben, SAK.

         Translated from Swedish by Martin Rundkvist
                     (martin@skom.se).

Light shone weakly through the little window. Among the shadows
inside you could see a man who had collapsed over his keyboard.
The monitor glow flickered in front of him. The lower edge of the
display said "You die of starvation. Do you want to try again?"

Slowly the man at the computer started to move as the weak light
from the dusty window grew stronger. He laboriously got up, felt
an increasing hunger. Where was he? Wait, he was in a desert. He
could remember seeing a nasty lizard somewhere. He looked around
and spotted the bed; no, he must be wrong.


He scanned his surroundings in confusion. Wait, now he knew where
he was. How could he have missed it. Naturally he was in Cleveland
on a quest for a 1934 Ford headlight, or...

He had to find food, but how? He started opening the window with a
can opener, but realized that it was easier without it. He picked
up the bedsheets and tied them into a long rope. He handed one end
to his wife (who had just then walked in with a breakfast tray)
and then swung out the window. Heedless of his wife's
exclamations, he climbed the 75 centimeters to the ground.

Now he was at the driveway of a house. If he went north, he would
come to a road. To the east was a garden, but that way was blocked
by a fence. As a seasoned adventurer he immediately started
examining the place carefully even though it seemed strangely
familiar. In the flower bed he found a number of tulips, and he
pocketed one in case of emergency.

The adventurer went north and found himself at a road which led
away in two directions: east and west. He tried east and wandered
slowly along the road along rows of houses. Suddenly a pseudo-
intelligent being approached him. After a quick examination he
found that the creature had a baby carriage. He was now in a
situation critical to the success of his mission. Did he need a
baby carriage? The answer he arrived at was the only natural one
for a real adventurer: dunno! He tried giving the tulip to the
creature, which frightened it and caused it to run away down the
street.

The man did not let this bother him but simply picked up the
slightly battered tulip and continued on his way. One by one he
examined a manhole, a streetlamp and a mailbox. In the mailbox he
found a letter, but was interrupted by the addressee before he had
read more than half of it. It was signed "Kronofogden" (footnote:
literally Royal Bailiff, in modern Swedish denoting an official
responsible for the collection of debts.), from which he deduced
that there must be a castle in the vicinity. He continued
hurriedly to evade the letter recipient who did not like people
reading his mail as well as two others in white smocks who
appeared out of nowhere.

In front of him loomed the castle. Shining letters right at the
middle spelled I.C.A. (footnote: a Swedish grocery store chain).
When he approached the doors they parted almost without a sound
and he entered an enormous hall.

Slowly, hesitantly, he started walking across the glossy floor.
Long rows of shelves towered above him on both sides and
restricted his movements. The shelves were filled with
multi-colored cans bearing various inscriptions. He took a can and
examined it. It read "tomato paste," followed by a couple of magic
symbols consisting of alternating white and black lines. He took
the rest of the cans down from the shelf, but found only dust
behind them so he continued walking. He spotted and grabbed a
large bottle filled with a black liquid that might come in handy
if he got thirsty. The label said "soy sauce".

Finally he saw the exit. All that barred his way was a lady
sitting at a long table where something moved. He tried passing

her when suddenly she yelled "Stop! Don't you try sneaking out
without paying!" and pointed at the bottle in his hand.

Now he had to find out what the lady wanted. He took inventory of
his belongings and decided that he could part with the tulip.  No
good. The angry red flush increasing in the lady's face and her
penetrating stare made him drop the bottle and withdraw hastily.

He had the time however to put a coin in a machine at the exit,
which gave him a piece of paper. The number was probably a
combination for a safe, he was certain...

* * * * *

A statue stood at the middle of the marketplace. Like so many
others, the statue depicted a horseman with sword and was covered
with guano. Below it stood a man acting strangely. Sweat trickled
down his forehead as he tried to turn the statue to point its arm
in some other direction.

Finally he gave up and sat down, winded and frustrated, on the
plinth. He looked around with empty gaze. He saw some houses, a
church, a fountain and -- aha -- a black hole.

An orange-dressed workman raised his eyebrows in consternation as
he saw our friend dive into the manhole and disappear into the
darkness.

Carefully the adventurer made his way along the tunnel.  Some
half-forgotten memory made him expect to find an entrance to the
palace of the Sultan or something along those lines. At intervals
he yelled "kweepa," jumped a bit, and clapped his hands. These
were all simple security measures. Now and then he could hear
little splashes and frightened rats swimming away.

Suddenly a thin line of light from a hatch high above him
appeared. He opened the hatch and climbed up, but to his
disappointment found himself in a back-yard. A board fence ran
between two large houses to the north and an imposing building
stood to the south. The door of the building was open, but the
adventurer naturally climbed through a window that stood slightly
ajar.

Shelf after shelf of books filled the room from floor to ceiling.
The adventurer carefully pulled out a book at random, but nothing
happened. He started systematically to pull out the rest of the
books from the shelf. When he got out the book "Martin's
Desserts," a title that reminded him of something, something
finally happened. A voice started to speak. He turned to see if
someone was standing behind him, but did not see anyone. After a
moment, however, he realized that he was facing the same way as
before. When he turned again, slower this time, he saw that the
voice belonged to a bespectacled man who continued:

-- May I help you?

The adventurer considered the question and said:

-- Librarian, give me small yellow card.

-- I think that could be arranged, said the man, if you would
please tell me your social security number, name and address.

The adventurer considered this for a while and then took a piece
of paper out of his pocket.

-- 4326, he said hopefully.

-- I'm sure there must be more figures, smiled the man with the
glasses.

Our friend then decided to concentrate on other problems. To the
librarian's great surprise, he left the room.

The room he entered was even larger than the previous one.  The
sun shone through a glass dome over some chairs surrounded by
plants. Here, too, were books in abundance. He took out "Kite-
Flying 101", "How to Spell-Bind your Listeners" and a set of
headphones from a boy who had fallen asleep in one of the chairs.

He stopped for a moment and read a magic word on a green- glowing
sign at the door. Before fleeing from the little boy who
threatened him with his stick, and the man in glasses who had
discovered all the books he had pulled down, he managed to snare
the green "exit" sign.

The sun was shining from a clear blue sky. The adventurer wandered
aimlessly through deserted streets. He should have drawn a map. He
found an abandoned house and decided to investigate it.  He
entered the door which was adorned with posters in some foreign
language. When he entered the large hall that filled part of the
house the floor suddenly collapsed, and he fell into the basement.

In the dim light he saw old chairs, a bicycle, a ladder, another
bicycle, two couches, an easy chair, an electrical outlet, a rat
and a rusty food processor. But he saw no readily apparent exit.
When he examined the room he found that the door was behind the
two couches, one of the bicycles and the rat. He took inventory of
what he had at hand and considered the situation.

After a while he got an idea. It was all really ridiculously
simple:  all he had to do was to connect the "exit" sign to the
outlet so the light would come on. Then he could just walk out.

Sadly, his logical solution did not work. No door appeared.
Apparently he had to try some other, more far-fetched solution,
like raising the ladder to the hole and climbing out. Back on the
street, slightly annoyed that the bicycles were too large to get
through the hole, he went toward a canal he could barely make out
between the houses.

A boat was bobbing at the quay. Ducks were hungrily devouring
half-eaten cheese sandwiches. The boat's controls consisted of a
mass of levers and gauges, but after a couple of hours our friend
got it running and steered away slowly along the western quay.

About 10 meters forward the canal took a sharp turn.

Instinctively he increased his speed as he approached the turn.
He flew, hair fluttering, through the curve and landed in a
kitchen that seemed strangely familiar. He tied the boat to the
kitchen table and threw out some debris through the hole in the
wall.

Apparently he had been here before. A corridor led to a room where
his wife was standing. She held a rope made of bed sheets tied
together and seemed surprised. He sat down at a flickering monitor
that said:

What do you want to do now?

> i

You have:
A piece of paper with the figures 4326, a book, a book, a set of
head-phones and a green electric sign.



                              - o -