The little man started walking toward me. Faster and faster he walked. And then he was getting bigger. Bigger and bigger until he towered over me. He kept walking and I thought, “My goodness, he will not see me when he has reached me and he will step on me and that will be the end of me.” I tried to move. I could not. Not one inch, in any direction. I was stuck. But I didn’t know why. I didn’t know why I was here and why this giant man was walking toward me. And then just as suddenly he was not. Not only was he not walking; he was not growing. And not only was he not growing; he was shrinking. He got smaller and smaller and then he was gone. And then I was frightened of something that felt worse. He was no longer visible. Was he still there? Only so small that I couldn’t see him? Again, I tried to move. I wasn’t able to walk. But now I could move my arms and I could bend at my waist. I bent to look at the ground to see if the man was down there. And I got dizzy. The world began to spin and then it rocked as though I were on a boat. I drew in a deep breathe hoping that the man hadn’t become so small that I would inhale him and stood back up. There, everything stopped. That is when I heard the noise. There hadn’t been any noise before. The trees were full of birds of every type and color, and all of sizes. But not one of them had made a sound before. Now, they all began to whistle. Quietly at first, like they were whispering to one another and then louder so that it seemed they wanted me to notice them. And then much louder. And all of them sang the same tune. It was familiar to me but I couldn’t name it. They sang it over and over. Perhaps it was just a chorus. As I stood there and tried to recognize the song, my attention turned to the birds, I forgot about the man. And then realizing that I had forgotten him, I noticed him again. He was sitting on a log in the forest and he was playing a flute. I tried to move my feet again, to walk and began to float. I was being lifted up in the air. I looked down and saw a mass of music notes under my feet. The song was lifting me. I begged the birds to keep singing. I tried to whistle along. They didn’t like that and all stopped at once. “Oh no, I am so sorry to presume that I can make music as well as you! I will be quiet. Please continue!” They seemed to accept my apology and resumed their whistling. And then I yawned. Suddenly, I was in a different place. I was walking along a stream with giant flowers along its shore and beautiful butterflies flitting about. This seemed to be a safer place. Although, come to think of it, I wasn’t sure that I really had to be scared before. I didn’t think the man was planning on harming me. I wondered where he was and why I had left the forest. I came around a corner and found a little boat tied to a small pier. A frog dressed in a vest and top hat invited me aboard. He said his was name Cornelius and he would like to take me on a tour. I thought this would be okay and he helped me aboard. About a mile down the stream he began to tell me about the flowers and trees that we could see from the boat. He said they all were medicinal and very valuable and that he was trying to raise the money to buy the land around the stream to protect them. Some people wanted to build a casino along the banks of the stream. I thought that would be a strange place for a casino and then I looked out from the shore. The stream was now a river, so wide that I couldn’t see the other side. Cornelius explained that we had moved into the mighty river now and that the river would pick up speed soon and we would be swept out to sea if we didn’t turn around. “I would love to see the sea!” I exclaimed. He said, “Well you better go now, before I turn around.” He put his hand out on the water and stepping stones of lily pads popped up. And that was how I got to shore. Cornelius stood up in his little boat and turned around and the boat began going back up the river in the opposite direction of the flow. I thought to myself, “My, that is a magic little frog!” Before I could get my bearings a cat walked up to me and started rubbing himself on my leg. I bent down to pet his head and he turned into the man again. This time the man was my size. As he transformed and stood upright he bumped my head because he was coming up as I was bending down to pet him. We both exclaimed in surprise. He asked me what I was doing there and I assured him that I had no idea but that I was certainly intrigued by all the amazing things that had been going on. He said he was going to the sea to fish and if I felt inclined I could follow him. If I did though, I must promise to ask no questions and tell no lies. I agreed whole heartedly and we walked off in the direction that the frog had indicated. We walked for one day, then a whole night, and then a whole day. We never stopped walking the whole time and we never spoke. I was so tired and my feet hurt badly. I discovered that I had no shoes on and although the ground felt very much like a carpet, I was tired because we hadn’t stopped once. I kept up with him and tried to think of a way to find out why we didn’t stop without asking a question. We came up over a hill and then I saw it. I saw the sea. And it was exactly like the sea that I was used to. Big and endless looking, blue water, white waves, sandy beach, dune grass. It was all familiar. As soon as we reached the dune and I saw the dune crossing made of weather beaten wood I knew I would be resting soon. I ran over the dune crossing, I ran and ran, but the dune crossing never ended. I kept going and still the dune couldn’t be crossed. I fell to the floor and wept. All I wanted was to lay on the sand. And then the man came to me. He picked me up and he walked the rest of the way. He placed me gently on a blanket under a sun umbrella and he went to fish in the surf. I closed my eyes and went to sleep. In that dream, I experienced the most bizarre things, but I am afraid that I can’t seem to remember what happened. It seems often that when you want to remember something you just can’t. The dreams just run away as soon as you wake.