I was hitchhiking to Ohio. I had been hitchhiking all day and had only won one short ride for 25-30 kilometers. I had then walked for a long ways, thinking about just how far I might end up walking on this trip. Finally I arrived on the outskirts of a large city where the turnpike split off to the left and right. I started to go down the left fork, but then pulled out my map to check. I realized that I had arrived in Dallas and that I needed to go to the right. To do so I would need to cross over several lanes of traffic. Instead,  to avoid the traffic, I walked down underneath the road (an overpass) and I began crossing under to get back to the right fork, carrying my luggage along with me. I wondered if I were going to end up having to walk all the way around Dallas to get to where the freeway went east to Ohio. (I had arrived in Dallas from the south).

Under the overpass, I found some people gathered in what appeared to be a concession area where food was being sold from some booths. One booth was selling hot dogs and another had some other things, like jars of mushrooms and relish, some condiments. I was very hungry, but since I didn't want to eat any meat, I looked around for something I might be able to eat. It then struck me that I had earlier been in this same place, and that I had left some clothes hanging here. I saw my red cowboy shirt and my shirt with the green stripes. The green-striped shirt was hanging on a hanger, although the top part of the hanger was missing. The red cowboy shirt wasn't on a hanger, just hanging on a locker. I also saw the old green pullover sweater I used to have, as well as both my black shirts, which looked rumpled up. I also saw another red-checkered shirt which obviously belonged to someone else. I realized I had earlier washed the clothes here and had forgotten them. I was glad to see them, because I wanted to pack them with the rest of my things. I began gathering the clothes together and hanging them on the lockers. It looked as if some other people here also had clothes hanging out. I was thinking I was going to have to have someone press the clothes. I knew I had lived in the area of town near Southern Methodist University (SMU) before, and I thought I might take my clothes over there to have them pressed. Then I might have the clothes shipped from there to me in Ohio.

A fellow walked up and told me I shouldn't have the clothes sent by a certain freight carrier which he named. That was exactly what I had been planning to do, but now I began having second thoughts.

Since I was hitchhiking, I thought perhaps I could go to SMU and look at the ride board. Perhaps there I could get a ride with someone back to Ohio. Maybe I could leave all my clothes in one of the large lockers here, and then take a bus to SMU. It was about 5 p.m. I decided not to take the clothes with me right now, but thought I would first see if I could find someone to press them, and then come back for them. I didn't want to drag the clothes all the way up to SMU. My main objective was to see if I could find someone to give me a ride back to Ohio.

As I was about to leave, over to my side I noticed a caged area which looked like a little arena. Two rats were fighting in the arena; one rat had forced the other one down and was eating it. I also heard someone narrating like a sports commentator, making comments about the struggle. He said a big rat battle would take place in a few seconds. Suddenly two large herds of rats were cut loose into the arena. The rats in one herd were black, while the rats in the other herd were white. The rats began fighting. Looking at the tremendous battle, I focused in on one pair of rats in particular. The commentator was also making comments about that particular pair of fighting rats. The name of the white rat was "Ulu," and the commentator also gave the name of the black rat. The commentator said Ulu had attacked the black rat. The black rat was just lying on its back looking up in the air at Ulu. Ulu was eating on the stomach of the black rat. Suddenly Ulu gnawed into the stomach of the black rat, pulled out some of his intestines, and began eating them.

The commentator commented about how Ulu had won that particular battle. The other rats were still battling all around and all seemed to be paired off with one white rat fighting one black rat. I wondered what prevented another black rat from attacking Ulu while he quietly ate on the other black rat.