"Whoa, calm down!" said Flanders with a friendly grin. "A little fender-benderoonie isn't worth getting your knickers in a knot. Now take a deep breath and count to…"

Homer began to glance around in astonishment. "Marge?" he muttered. "Kids?"

"What's the matter?" Ned inquired.

Startled, Homer hurried to the side of his ruined car. His wife and children were nowhere to be found. Maggie's baby seat lay empty.

"Where'd they go?" he wailed. "Oh, God, I've lost my family! I'm a terrible father!"

"I'm sure they're nearby," said Flanders reassuringly. "Did you check the glove compartment?"

"They can't fit in there," said Homer. "It's full of maps and crap."

The two men began to wander, looking in all directions. The shining, vibrating blob of energy towered over them in the middle of Evergreen Terrace. They realized before long that not only had Homer's family vanished, but so had all the children playing in the lawns. Two or three cars sat motionlessly in the street, emptied of occupants.

"Where the Sam Diddly is everybody?" said Flanders to no one in particular.

They knocked on a few doors, but no one answered.

Homer shook his head incredulously. "Stupid citizens. They hear a car wreck, then they all hide away so they won't have to get involved."

"I guess there's nothing to do but wait for the police to show up," said Flanders.

----

"Homer! Ned!" Marge called out, gripping Maggie tightly in her arms. "Where did you go?"

While she roamed the street in search of her husband and neighbor, Bart and Lisa stood before the mysterious energy cloud that had caused Homer to swerve out of control.

"What the hell is that thing?" Bart wondered.

"It appears to be a rupture in the fabric of time and space," Lisa theorized. "It may lead somewhere—another time, another planet, perhaps even another dimension."

"Maybe it sucked in Homer and Flanders," Bart suggested.

"There's one way to find out," said Lisa.

She swallowed. Summoning her courage, she took one slow step, then another. Bart watched breathlessly as his sister was absorbed by the glowing white mass until she completely disappeared.

"Well?" he asked. "Does it lead anywhere?"

"Yes," came Lisa's voice. "To the other side."

----

Homer and Flanders met at the accident site after having walked ten blocks in either direction. "See anything?" Homer inquired.

"Nope," Flanders answered. "Just empty cars all along Route 401."

"All the shops downtown are abandoned," said Homer. "I don't know what could have happened, unless the economy crashed and everybody moved away."

An expression of abject terror formed on Ned's face.

"What is it?"

"It's the rapture," said Flanders, fighting to choke out words. "God has taken the righteous into heaven in preparation for the battle of Armageddon. Did you see any neatly folded piles of clothing?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Homer chided the frantic man. "I stopped by Moe's, and no one was there either. But the beer was still cold."

Flanders plunged to his knees in despair. "Oh, God, what did I do wrong? Why did you take Moe and not me? Wasn't I a good father to the boys? Didn't I light a candle for Maude every night? Didn't I say no to the Mormons every time they knocked on my door?"

"Snap out of it!" cried Homer, shaking Flanders by the collar.

"We're done for," the religious man mumbled. "We're done-diddly-done for. We're done-diddly-doodly-iddly…"

His patience exhausted, Homer tried to bring Flanders out of his delirium with a slap to the face.

"…diddly…"

Another slap.

Flanders sighed and became lucid. "Thanks, Homer. I needed…"

Another slap.

"I'm okay now, Homer."

"I'll say when you're okay!" Slap.

"Gosh diddly darn it!" exclaimed Flanders, backing away. "Oh, me and my temper."

"The police should have shown up by now," Homer remarked. "Or at least a few lawyers."

"I'd call them myself," said Flanders, "but my cell phone's kaput. Pay phones are dead too."

Homer's eyes widened. "No phones, no police, no lawyers…it's like society's breaking down! I want society back! Well, except for the lawyers."

"We could drive to another town and get help," Flanders proposed. "Shelbyville, maybe."

"No way!" Homer protested. "Not Shelbyville! I can just hear it now. 'Ha, ha! We have people and you don't!'"

"Then again, maybe we should stay right here," said Flanders. "Because I think this big blob-like whatchamajigger…"

"It's an interdimensional rift."

"How do you know?"

"Two years ago I pushed the wrong button and created one. It sucked in a bunch of NRC inspectors. Mr. Burns gave me a raise."

"Maybe this inter-whatchamawhatever thingamabob sucked up all the people," Flanders hypothesized.

"Or maybe it sucked us up," Homer pondered. "No, that can't be right. Because we're still here."

----

"Ned got out of his car, and they started arguing," Marge recounted to Chief Wiggum. "Then they just disappeared into thin air."

"And what happened after they disappeared, Mrs. Simpson?" asked the chief as he jotted down notes.

"Nothing. They stayed disappeared."

"It's like a big donut hole," said Eddie the cop, gazing up at the misty blob.

"What makes you say that?" asked his partner, Lou.

"You can see it, and you know it's there, but if you try to touch it, your finger goes right through."

"That's very profound."

----

An hour passed. Homer and Flanders saw no evidence of human activity other than their own, which wasn't much.

"I'm tired of waiting," grumbled Homer, rising up from the curb. "Let's go."

"We can't," said Flanders.

"Why not?"

"Because if we want to get out of this predicament, we need help. And I've got a feeling help will come through that big shiny blobbish whatchamadiddly."

Homer sat down. They continued to wait. The clouds drifted aimlessly through the summer sky.

"We haven't even seen any animals," Homer remarked.

"Or birds," said Flanders.

"I wish I had a kitty right now," Homer moaned.

----

"Look!" exclaimed Lisa, pointing. "It's Professor Frink!"

The bespectacled scientist arrived in a sedan with a megaphone attached to the top. "Step away from the interdimensional rift!" he commanded over the speakers.

The police officers and Simpsons complied, retreating to the sidewalk. Frink left his vehicle and began to circle the disturbance, analyzing it with scientific gadgets and humming to himself.

Finally he stopped. "Holy mother of glavin!" he exclaimed in wonder.

"What did you find?" asked Lisa.

The professor raised his glasses so that the Simpsons could see his beady red eyes.

"It's alive…"

----

to be continued