walk down and take a look. Nothing today has been ordinary or what was normal for me.

Does this day have an end?  Will this riddle ever be answered?  Is there possibly an answer to be had? 

And who is the man in the shadows, black-clad and twirling an impressive mustache?

Cautiously I entered the house.  It looked like my house, but inside all seemed new, shinier.  The scratch on the mahogany table was gone, the long stain on the kitchen wall where I had spilled coffee months ago had disappeared. Even the light seemed different.

There, near the window, on my rocking chair, a woman sat, staring outside.  She had my hair style...

Was the handsome young man, black-clad stranger, and this woman all related somehow? What did it all mean? And why wasn't I more concerned?

In my heart I felt a link, a kind of deja-vu, an affinity with these people as if I knew them well and should be familiar with the situation.

I know!  It's all a dream!  I better pinch myself.  OUCH!  That hurt!  It's definitely NOT a dream!  What then?  How can it be explained?  I'm not afraid...just a little...or a lot confused!

The woman with my page hair style turned around. She did not look surprised, more as if she had been expecting me, but I was stunned beyond words: she looked like an exact copy of me about twenty years ago!

The woman with my page hair style turned around. She did not look surprised, more as if she had been expecting me, but I was stunned beyond words: she looked like an exact copy of me about twenty years ago!
All of a sudden it dawned on me.  I was looking at myself . . .  at the "me" of long ago, when I was young, and the house was new!  What did this mean?  Was I traveling back in time, or was I traveling forward in time, to a new beginning, in a warm, familiar place? 

She said: "I have been reading your diary", showing the leather book she was holding between her hands.

Did that mean I was in the future? and where? Help!!!!

OR...if that's me as I used to be, is this the present  where I am and she's from my past.  I feel like I'm in that commercial where the child tells the adult that she is herself as she used to be.  But this isn't a commercial.  This is real!  What's happening?  I WANT MY REALITY BACK!

"My child," boomed a voice. "You shall have it. But first you must pick three water lilies from the pond over by yonder hill. They must be full blooming, pink, and picked at dawn. In each you will find a little being, begging to be held. Pick each one up, placing it on the log by the old oak tree. When you have done that, pick some moss and place it there for them to lie on. Some wild strawberries grow on the left side of the path. Pick some and place them on the log together with the chanterelles growing behind the log. When this is done, your life in Otherland will be over, and reality will overtake. Do not ask again to be transported to Otherland, because you obviously would rather be in a place of harsh realities, absurd as that may be. Goodbye, my child, and peace follow you. Do not try to call me, my telephone can no longer respond.."

NOW WHAT?

Now you add to it...

Is it over?  Or is there more?  I'm curious!  And why is the dog barking?

So, I ran over the hill until I could see the the water lilies but had to wait the whole night shivering until Aurora finally colored the sky pink.  There really was a tiny cute elf near each bloom and they all fitted easily in my cupped palm together with the moss. The mushrooms were easy to find but not the strawberries which were hiding under numerous leaves. But their scent betrayed them. I was loath to depart, this looked so ... intriguing!
I was in two minds now if to go back to my normal routine or...
What to do?

And why is that dog still barking?  Maybe he's stuck somewhere.  But where?  And what shall I do with the elves while I try to help the dog? 

I needn't have worried. The elves had hopped onto my shoulder, and were pointing excitedly ahead, to the huge trees farther down the road. I started in that direction, and the barking seemed to get louder. And then I saw it ....

a cute curly haired dog barking... to a huge spider that was hanging, balancing on a web thread!  The spider had a wide mouth and it was smiling!!!

Are they talking?  And what are they talking about?  Could the dog be telling jokes?  If he is, that would explain the spider smiling...even grinning!  I've never seen a spider smile.  I always think of them as mean and nasty but this one actually looks happy...and so does the dog.  I looked at his collar and it says his name is....CURLY!  Who knew!

But wait -- that was surely a ruse. The dog was actually in disguise, and under that "sheep-skin" was a sleek-haired Doberman. The spider was also a spy (beware of false smiles), and this so-called "Curly" was giving him/her information, disguised as mischievous barking. It was something like Morse code -- "yap, yap" pause "yap", and so on.  He/she was a citizen of the new Dog planet recently discovered over at Vancouver's planetarium. Little is known of this planet, but all the more reason to beware!

       

Since the last session, I have been on the planet DOG. It is not too large, having only three village-like settlements. There are mostly two-story doghouses there, since the staircase concept has not yet been discovered, but they apparently have adapted themselves to the best jumpers having the best view. The settlements tend to attract dogs of a feather, i.e., curly-coated dogs, such as Escapoos, Goldendoodles, Labradoodles, Wowauzers, Yorkipoos, Lakeland terriers and Sheep poodles (these were on the list of occupants at the housing authority center). This was in the mountainous area near the Lower Pole. By the sea were the smaller animals that liked a run-around and a bath in the evenings, and near the Top Pole were the Eskimo dogs, and the like. They were totally vegetarian, eating the orangy "greenery" and purple dandelions (the closest I can compare the huge, crew-cut flowers to). Water was easy to find -- springs bubbled up everywhere. The citizens were friendly, but you had to find your own food, not a problem, since what was edible for a dog, was edible for a human.

Got to go -- have to walk the dog. Anybody else want to take a trip to the planet DOG?

I am back from the Isle of Dog, now where to go to next, that is the question..

Vanilla Jackie, I think the desert would be the place. The palms have wilted long ago; here are only stately cacti and scuttling insects -- thin, hard-shelled. poisonous. A few tin cans lie half buried, the remains of expeditions to this earlier swampy area. No remnants of bone, since the insects have devoured all remains to be found. In some places, the sand is scarlet, with small columns of purple smoke arising from those spots. Is this the ancient place of the .....

Ahh yes, the desert where i am eating desert, so many creepy crawlies have been surrounding me, better eat it quickly...I am sure the smoke is a smoke signal perhaps telling me of danger ahead..

I don't like this dry, buggy place!  I'm getting out while I still can!  I think I'll check out the beach!

What secret is that beach hut hiding..it kind of looks out of place to me..

What secret is that beach hut hiding..it kind of looks out of place to me..

What secret? Do you not see the well under the roof of the lone round edifice  built of inch-thick bamboo-like gray straw? The well has smooth stone walls; the opening is dark, and the bottom is endlessly below sea level, if the timing of returning echoes can be deduced. Fresh drops of water splashed on the stone wall sting the tongue, but there is no taste of the ocean. When did that water get spilled there? No human being or other entity can be seen anywhere on this small island. The only signs of life are three flip-flops, of varying sizes, seemingly dropped in haste in the orange sand. Do they belong to three different beings, or perhaps....

...a three-legged man?  What if he's an alien and he's coming to see what his buddies can get into if them land here?  What if.....