It was the May school holidays, one full term after the summer holiday period that Percy Dale had spent with the twelve year old girl called Jennifer Winters. Percy was ten years old, and was to spend two nights and three days at 66 Burnseid Street Wahroonga. This was the home of his grandparents.  

Having arrived at 66 Burnseid Street, Percy farewelled his family, and was anxious to explore the bushes which led to the tennis court fence of a special house with a Burns Rd address. That was the home where Jenny Winters had lived. For fourteen weeks, these two had been separated. Now, perhaps, Percy would see Jenny again, and they might even be able to plan a way to visit each other during the school terms in the future. Jenny was two years older than himself. In less than a year, she would be a teenage girl. Maybe she would be able to find a way to see more of him.

"Would you like to kick the football in the garden?" asked his grandmother, who kept a hollow plastic football in the house light enough for a child to kick without hurting his foot,'       "I have a few things to do before we can plan anything for today."

This would suit Percy's purposes adequately.

"Sure," he said, "I'll use the large lawn out under the oak tree."

His grandmother felt pleased, that this would keep Percy out of mischief for the time being, and she left him to wander over to the lawn.

He gave the football a hard kick, aiming it straight for the bushes. He then walked into the bushes, as if to pursue the football. The cubby house was still undisturbed in the bushes. It had obviously remained undetected. He would have heard something said about it, had it been discovered by one of his grandparents.

Then the surprising news was discovered by the young Percy Dale. A young boy about eight years old, wandered onto the tennis court, put down a model car and directed its movements around the tennis court, using a remote control device.

"Hello," called Percy, "Does Jenny Winters still live here?"

"No," said the boy, "We moved in here, about a few weeks ago. We live here now."

Life just did not seem fair sometimes, thought Percy, as he retrieved the football and went back indoors to see whether his grandmother had finished her chores.

They spent the day relaxing, watching television, building with toy modelling dough, and feasting on the results of his grandmother's cooking.

However, by the time Percy had climbed into bed, he was still thinking about Jennifer Winters. There was something different about having been special friends with a GIRL. If he was kept from seeing his male friends in the past, he had soon found new friends and forgotten about it.

However, it had now been fifteen weeks, and he still could not forget Jennifer Winters.

"Now I will never know where she is," thought Percy, as he lay in bed with tears forming in his young eyes. He had exhausted himself both physically and emotionally that day. His grandmother had sat, watched and talked to him, which was enough for a boy who merely wanted some company while he ran around doing things to wear off his pre-adolescent excess energy.

Percy thought back to other previous visits to 66 Burnseid Street Wahroonga.

"What else do I remember?" he asked himself, "Oh well, there was that time I snuck out at night and found that group of people in very historically old clothes in Wahroonga Park."

Percy remembered their top hats, tails, old white shirts, the jewellery in the hair of the girls, their lovely dresses, and the fact that he had discovered them eating and drinking and talking away in the park in the early hours of the morning. Having discovered him and temporarily confused him with a spy - because he had been crouching in the bushes observing them -they then permitted him to partake of their activities. He had only been seven years old at the time, or was it eight? He was not entirely sure.

"Eight, no, seven, no it couldn't be eight. I was definitely seven, because it was in third class, and I turned eight later on that year."

With the memories of the Wanderers of Wahroonga Park, and the girl called Jennifer Winters floating about in his mind along with his growing desire to be shrunken and eaten, Percy Dale sat up in his bed and looked out into the night. Below the stars were some tops of trees, a rose garden, then the driveway, the hedge, the lawn strip (not the one where Percy had kicked the football), the downstairs roof outside, and the window.

What would happen if he went out there right now?

He decided to lie down for about half an hour. This would revive his energy, as well as allowing his grandmother some time to get to bed and fall asleep herself.

"It's funny how I often have fun and adventures with special people at night, when I'm up here for a visit to my grandmother's house," thought Percy, and then he did something which had not been incorporated into the plans which he had just made. Instead of lying in bed for half an hour, prior to creeping out of the house, the young Percy Dale fell into a deep sleep and began to dream.

            The first part of the dream was merely a repeat of the events which had transpired in

            the reality of the days just gone past. Percy's dream self was to spend some time at 66

            Burnseid Street Wahroonga. His family had driven him to Wahroonga, dropped him

            off, shared a few welcome words of conversation with his grandmother and departed.

            Percy collected the football from the cupboard in the upstairs guest bedroom (where

            his real self was currently located in deep sleep), and kicked it around the large lawn

            for a while, until it sailed into the air and landed somewhere in the distant bushes.

            Percy walked over to the bushes, and began to search for the football.

            After a fruitless effort of crawling, lifting small branches out of his line of sight, and

            failing to find the football, Percy decided to lie down for a short rest in the cubby

            house, which was called, but not labelled, Jentil Manor.

            Percy climbed through the doorway, having opened the unhinged block of wood

            that had often served as  a door during the Christmas holidays of Percy's real life.

            Seated in the cubby house, cuddling the football as though it were a teddy bear was

            a smiling Jennifer Winters.

            "Percy boy, I have missed you," she said, "I hope you didn't mind my little prank,

            but I thought you would never look in here. I was about to come out and surprise

            you."

            "I'm so glad you are here too," said Percy, "School was just no fun at all after

            spending the summer holidays with you."

            "Summer holidays, yes. But Percy, in five days, it will be well into winter. You know

            how the second week of the May holidays  always gets colder than the first, much

            colder. I would love to sneak out with you again at nights, but how can we play

            chasings in trees when the branches feel so cold and hard on my hands?"

            "We'll go for a walk around Wahroonga instead," said Percy, "and we can wear

            plenty of warm clothes. But let's have a cuddle."

            Percy and Jenny embraced, until a voice sounded in the gardens of his grandmother's

            house.

            "Percy, where are you?"
            "Oh, that will be your grandmother. Can I meet you here at eleven o'clock tonight?"
            "I'll get here as soon as I can sneak out. Will you wait for me?"

            "Sure. I will just come out early and have a rest in Jentil Manor, right here. It's easy to

            trick my parents."

            Percy kissed her cheek and ran out from the bushes, clutching the football.

            "Sorry, Nan. I kicked it hard, and it went into the bushes. I have been looking for it

            for a while. Then I found it. Then soon after that, you called me."

            "Well you'll want to kick it the other way from now on, won't you? Then you can

            bounce it off the wall," said Percy's grandmother, "You don't need to be ratting

            around in all those bushes every time you kick it hard. You might get yourself lost

            in there, and I don't want to have to come in and find you. I don't like going in dark

            and creepy places like those bushes and trees. I never go where you have just been."

            "That's lucky," thought Percy.

Percy, in reality, usually demanded a fairly active grandmother. He enjoyed lengthy walks, outdoor games, wild card games of snap, and plenty of mischief to go with it.

            However, having in this dream planned a meeting with Jennifer Winters, Percy made

            a conscious decision to choose activities which would conserve his physical and

            mental energy, without arousing suspicion. So he replaced the morning walks and

            outdoor activities with a long session of card games, which pleased his grandmother

            to no end.

            "We usually play cards in the afternoon or evening," said his grandmother, "but this

            is better, isn't it?"

            "I wanted to watch a lot of programs on television this afternoon. So I thought we

            could play cards now instead."

            "It's been a good idea. Perhaps this will be your first visit when I can enjoy a good

            long rest this afternoon, without being spider-webbed into the four poster bed by

            coils of wool or something. I'll give you a snack to put aside for the middle of the

            afternoon, when you get a commercial break, and you have worked up a bit of an

            appetite since lunch. That way I can stay asleep in the afternoon, and have my

            usual night's sleep as well, because I know how you like a hot toast snack at six in

            the morning. It's a good thing I usually get up at six o'clock anyway. You don't

            mind your nan's sleeping habits, do you?"

            "Well certainly not this time," thought Percy, "not that I ever mind them. It works

            out well."

            Percy was able to eat his lunch and then put the heater on the floor in the television

            room. He enjoyed chocolate biscuits, lollies and chips at a rate that would have

            alarmed any witnesses, had there been any, and managed to swallow the lot before

            his grandmother peeked in hours later.

            "How are you enjoying the program?" asked his grandmother.

            "Fine. Thanks for the afternoon tea."

            "You must be just about ready for dinner now."

            "Yes please," said Percy, for whom the disposal of a meal within half an hour of

            gorging himself on a belated snack was a minor feat, which would not retard his

            usual evening eating habits.

            Percy watched about twenty minutes of television, while his grandmother prepared

            some grilled steak with homemade potato chips.

            Dessert consisted of tinned peaches, gelato and jelly, all together in the one bowl.

            Percy finished off the lot and then challenged his grandfather - who had just

            returned home from a charity meeting with a generous non-profit organisation -

            to a game of marbles on the living room floor.

            His grandfather accepted, and Percy produced the large sock full of marbles which

            he had been collecting since April, when marbles had become a craze at school.

The marble craze had been true for the real life Percy Dale as well as his dream self, who was merely remembering the reality of the marbles addiction.

            "Is it going to be sudden death or once twice and away?" asked Percy.

            "We didn't call marble games things like that when I was a boy," said his grandfather;

            but the elderly man was keen to adapt to his grandson's way of playing.

            "How do those games get played, Percy?" he asked.

            "Well, with sudden death, we each roll our marbles, taking turns, and the first person

            to hit the other person's marble with his own is the winner. Some people play for

            keeps at school, and some just play for fun and don't hand over the marbles when they

            lose the games. We can just play for fun."

            "And how does once twice and away go?"

            "To win, I would have to hit yours once, then a second time, and then roll mine away

            from yours and wait until I can hit yours a third time. If I hit yours a second time

            straight after the first time, then it's away. If I don't, then it's your turn, and I have to

            try again for my twice and away."

            "I understand," said his grandfather, "Well let's have a sudden death game to warm up

            and then finish the evening off with a longer once twice and away game."
            "I think it had better be once, twice, away, and off to bed for you after the games,

            Percy," said his grandmother, "You have had a long day."

            Percy won a coin toss and rolled his marble first. His grandfather would have the first

            targeting roll. So Percy's roll had to finish as far away from their starting point as

            possible. He rolled it far across the room, and it came to rest beside the piano.

            "Ooh, you had better not miss me," said Percy, or I get to do elevations next move."

            "What's that?"

            "Well if my marble stops right next to something, I can use a turn to lift it up onto the

            thing, like the piano."

            "But why on earth would you want to lift it up there?" asked his grandfather.

            "So I can do bombs the move after. I can throw it from up there, just above the piano.

            If I hit your marble when it lands, it's sudden death."

            "Well let's see, shall we?" said his grandfather with a plan in mind. He rolled his

            marble only half of the distance covered by Percy's.

            "Elevations," said Percy, and lifted his marble onto the piano.

            "Are you sure we're not playing 'marble-ations'?" asked his grandfather.

            Percy laughed for a while and then waited to see what his grandfather would do next.

            His grandfather rolled his marble gently towards the piano, so that it came to rest

            just underneath the piano, about an inch or two inwards from where Percy's first roll

            had finished.

            "That's clever," said Percy, "Now I can't elevate down again, or I'll be right in the

            path of your marble. I can't bomb you either. So I will have to just do bombs and

            hope I get to a good spot to get you next time."

            Percy's 'bombs' move caused the marble to ricochet off a chair and roll into the

            western downstairs hallway.

            "Oh dear, we'll be at it all night, just on sudden death," said his grandfather.

*          *          *          *

            Percy lost the sudden death game, and managed to redeem himself playing once

            twice and away. By nine o'clock he was lying in bed wearing his winter pyjamas.

            Percy decided to put on a black pair of long trousers, some white socks and           sandshoes, and wear a white shirt under his black jumper, which had a long neck.

            "I'll wait until quarter to ten and then start putting those things on," thought Percy.