When Richard woke up, he had a series of visions in a relaxed, sleepy way. They were like dreams, except he was awake.

In the first vision, a single-pontooned hovercraft pulled up, its curved, yellow foot extending into a blue leg which alone supported the entire craft, up above. Then as he watched, the hovercraft blended seamlessly into a background sky, becoming one with the clouds ... Or had it been a cloud form all along?

In the second vision he saw something about his mother becoming fire, and it was on the left side of his field-of-view. Then something about his father became liquid, or water, on the right side of his field-of-view.

An auditory whisper voice said,

"// .. //// /.../ // Fire behind; Water in front .. / ... /// .// ../ ///."

He had the idea to switch allegiance, way back in his childhood, from his mother, the gay divorcée, to his father, who in his childhood eyes, had become a real man of the world.

With this idea, he felt the grazing touch of some other mind, behind him on the right, just quick enough to register, "Richard ...," then quickly disappearing. A few minutes later, this other briefly touched his consciousness again, then withdrew. If was from a darkness, he realized ... a welcoming darkness like Sleep ... or Death.

From this droll pleasure, he blended seamlessly into the background of consciousness, fully awake and looking around.

He saw Patty, dyslexically. The way he put it in his own mind was more like, He was Patty.

"They think I'm pure because I don't have any clothes on," she said with a grin.

—Just wait!

The others were waking up, too.

"We crashed, we're in someone's yard, and the plants and animals talk to you," Patty Thorne said.

"I'm going back to sleep," Mr. Juda said.

—Just wait!

Linda Davis had taken off her clothes again. Stepping into the yard, she said, "Just wait!" to no plant or animal in particular.

"Pivotal," Mr. Juda said. "Pivotal."