As I lay on the bamboo floor at the cozy porch of our Nipa Hut, I could see the bluest color of the sky. The silver clouds started forming into a beautiful lady with a flowing garment, her hair seemed to look as long as my eyes could follow.

I was alone. Our Nipa Hut stood on top of a hill looking down on the huge farm of sugar canes, cassava trees and yams. The neighboring house, a distant relative’s, would take at least a couple of hours for a seven-year old girl to reach, in case something goes wrong. My father told me to wait. He, my older sister and brother had the whole afternoon to spend plowing the field and preparing the soil for the next planting season. I was yet too small to help on a whole day job - the morning time was enough, a siesta was advised after the morning tasks.

I shifted my attention to the ground. Watching the lemon grass surrounding the nipa hut like a fence, the afternoon breeze started to sway the leaves. The chirping sounds of the birds from the bamboo and avocado trees behind the hut was entrancing, I felt my eyes drooping. The sounds started to fade, the movements stopped. Then, silence…. silence with such a pitched sound, so deafening I could no longer hear anything nor feel the weight of my body. Suddenly, I became aware of a different world, so bright it was blinding me until my eyes adjusted to it. I was out under a bright sun! I started watching a little girl, me, rolling down a hill full of bright flowers, giggling, laughing and screaming with… with mixtures of emotions, thousands of many different kinds of emotions… could not describe them, no appropriate words to describe them! Reaching the bottom of the hill, I came to a beautiful lake, walked towards the water and started touching the cool water with my hands, cupped a handful of water and drank it.

When I opened my eyes, a sensation of being in a different world was still present. The beautiful lady was still in the sky, but this time, did I see a smile on her face? Was her hand waving me goodbye? … for now?