Mrs. Todd's Shortcut
David, friend of a caretaker named Homer Buckland, is an elderly man who is spending his later years hanging out at the local gas station in a small town.He listens to Homer narrate a tale about a woman he knew named Ophelia Todd, who was obsessed with finding shortcuts before disappearing sometime ago.He also discovered evidence that her shortcuts are taking fewer miles than are in a straight line between the trip origin and its destination, something that would be impossible in reality.Mrs. Todd compared the shortcuts to folding a map to bring two points closer together, suggesting she had discovered a warped version of reality, akin to a wormhole.The appeal of this overwhelms Homer, despite him discovering a horrifying rodent-like creature on the grille of her car which she brushes off as if it were a normal animal.