Dream

I'm a little girl, sitting on a front porch on a lazy summer day, staring down at my new red shoes. I can hear my own heartbeat, but the more I listen, the more it's a waltz-ish rhythm, and the music makes me smile. I stand and twirl once, twice. Then with a sly smile, I half close my eyes, and dance right off the porch, as the world around me is a whirling blur.

When I stop twirling, I am on a road. I skip down the road and meet up with a gypsy man and he tells me stories about the animals we pass. We pass a country fair and win a few goldfish. We come across a little girl who has my exact same birthday and she holds my hands and we twirl faster than I ever imagined I could as we travel on. A few miles outside a large city we find a kindly old rich-looking man, picking wildflowers on the side of the road, which he says remind him of his youth. The four of us travel on, me clutching my bag with the goldfish, until we reach the center of the city, a crossroads, where a kindly old woman is selling cool lemonade. We look at the signpost in the center of the city.

"Come live with me, and I'll give you a pony!",
the old man says.

"Come down to the river and we can go swimming!"

says the little girl,

and my goldfishes' eyes widen appreciatively.

The gypsy says,
"There is a view that can't be imagined,
just up that mountain."

The old woman says,

"Stay here in the city, all of you,

and see all the people."

I am trying to hear them all, but I can't hear .................

I look down at my dusty red shoes, and with a sly smile and half clothes eyes, I hold my goldfish bag to my chest. I can here it now. There it is. And I twirl to the side. Glissade, pas de chat, grand jete. I have no idea where I'm going. When I open my eyes, the air and light is different and someone is still with me. It's -

And then I woke up.