The "Forget You" Brew

II.

"So what exactly is this place?"

They were walking, now about a block away from the bunny house, with Likha leading the way to somewhere she hadn't named yet. She'd given Kyle a small carrier for Chestnut—she named the bunny that because of its color—and though he had been hesitant at first, he carried it with him anyway. It wasn't like the bunny was being hostile; it was, in fact, very well-behaved. 

"Nowheretown." 

"Excuse me?" 

"It's a place you can't find on a map . . . on any map.But I think the name really comes from the fact that the people who find us seem to have nowhere else to go." 

He frowned. That didn't make sense at all. In fact, none of the things he'd seen so far have made any sense. Before he and Likha stepped out of Mama Kata's Bunny House to see someone she hinted as "someone who can help," Kyle saw a couple more people there. A lad playing a ukulele by the window sill while a gray hare looked on. A lady in very corporate attire chasing three white mini satins down a flight of stairs. A gentleman who wrote furiously in his notebook while a crate full of various-colored dwarf bunnies sat on his table. 

None of the people he saw had bunny ears, but they didn't seem perturbed about being in such a place. Likha told him that those people who spend time at Mama Kata's were usually artists—writers, musicians, even painters—all in desperate need to breathe life to new work. 

"And then there are people like you who aren't sure why you're here in the first place." 

"So these . . . people. They're just like me, right?" 

"If just like you means they aren't from Nowheretown,yes. All of you are Othertowners to us." 

"And they find this place by . . . ?" 

"Oh, you don't find Nowheretown," Likha said,matter-of-factly. "Nowheretown finds you." 

As they passed several more structures, he noticed other people coming and going. They seemed normal, in that none of them had bunny ears like Likha, or any other animal parts, for that matter. And yet none of them looked at her strangely when they saw her. 

"Okay, so . . . how exactly is this person we're meeting going to help me? Is he or she some kind of tracker?" 

She looked at him in a way that made him feel like he just uttered a stupid question.

"Tim makes coffee" was her answer. 

He slowed in his tracks. She took a few more steps before realizing Kyle wasn't walking in stride with her any longer. She turned around and looked at him curiously. "Not a coffee drinker? Kaipuhan has teas, chocolate—" 

"I'm here to look for a friend, not to have coff—" Hiswords got cut off when they passed a man—perhaps twentyfeet tall and donning a tattered black trench coat over a skyblue shirt and dirt-brown pants—sitting on a chair that'sjust right for his size. The cordial way Likha greeted theman relieved Kyle somehow. It only meant he didn't haveto run for his life, no matter how imposing the figureappeared. 

If seeing a giant wasn't strange enough, however, Kyle also managed to catch a glimpse of people seemingly taking refuge under the massive chair. 

Upon noticing Kyle's fascination with the gentle giant, Likha went ahead and volunteered a piece of information."That was Captain Kubli. He helps people who are in need of hiding places." 

There was disbelief in his eyes when he turned to her,and she merely grinned. "There are lots of people and places in this town that can help you if you're in dire need of something . . ."