The only sounds to be heard were the quiet swishing and hissing of the water across the sand, and the soft rustling of the trees in the breeze. The sand led right up to a group of grassy dunes, soaking up the warmth of the late afternoon sun. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Julia said dreamily to nobody in particular. She sat up with a start and rubbed her eyes. She had been asleep and dreaming: it was time to wake up. Yet even as she lowered her hands from her face, she knew that al was not as she expected. The paradise was stil there. The blue of the sea and sky were far clearer and brighter than any colors she had ever seen in nature. The only sound she could hear was that of gentle waves swishing over the sand. She was feverish, just as Grandmother had thought. Julia stood up, alarmed, and then felt the warm breeze tousle her hair. She took a few tentative steps towards the sea, feeling the heat of the sand beneath her feet. There was a curious, dreamlike quality to everything, as if voices had cal ed to her from the world’s end over shoreless seas.
