To amuse himself, he imagined what sort of clothing would be worn by Jennifer

            Winters.

            "Oh she will look lovely no matter what she chooses for clothes," thought Percy,

                        "She always looks very lovely. It's like she's too special for anyone else but me to know about. That's why I don't tell the boys at school about her. They would

            probably think that I was becoming a cissy."

To the real Percy Dale, the concept of being called a cissy sounded rather stupid. His interpretation of the word "cissy" was  "a boy who is interested in the hobbies and interests of girls." So what was wrong with that? It was unusual, but the word "cissy" was always used

in a derogatory tone. Percy was less than pleased about it. However, in his dreams, he could put the realities of school aside and see Jenny again:

            "I'll bet she would tell them not to call me a "cissy," he thought, "but it wouldn't

            matter anyway, because right now they're not going to get another chance."

            The grandfather clock at the far end of the house, on the ground floor actually, struck

            a quarter to ten, which meant that it released the same combination of chimes that it

            gave out after every third quarter of the hour.

            However, the clock was not heard by the young Percy Dale, who was in fact

            relying on his watch. He slipped out of bed and dug deep into his suitcase. His hands        soon emerged with the items of clothing required for his visit to Jentil Manor and

            beyond.

            "Just what I need to look dark in the dark," thought Percy, "And I found the lot in the

            dark. Oh, oh. That's Nan coming up the stairs. Well I will jump into bed and pretend

            I am asleep. She'll never know that I've got all this on."

            He soon had his black necked black jumper completely covered by an eiderdown

            that reached his chin with ease and still enveloped his feet. He soon heard his door

            being opened.

            "Are you awake?"

            He lay there motionless until his grandmother had decided that it would be absurd to

            expect him to say 'no', after which she closed the door and retired to her own bedroom

            for the night. Percy knew that the wooden steps of the eastern staircase would creak

            loudly.

            "It would actually be less risky if I walk along the hall carpets, past Nan's bedroom,

            and go down the other stairs. Then I can get one of the distant downstairs doors open

            and make it to Jentil Manor secretly."

            He chose to leave the house via the billiard room, opening one of its side doors and

            stepping out onto the terrace. He then walked along the terrace, looking up at the

            vines and the wooden framework above him, until he reached the large lawn.

            A short and silent sprint brought him to the bushes, and he soon found Jenny waiting

            for him in Jentil Manor; waiting, but fast asleep.

            The prowl through his grandparents' house had been slow, in order to ensure that its

            total degree of silence had been maintained. She must have dropped off while waiting

            for him. He pressed the light button on his watch. The time was a quarter past ten.

            "Well the whole thing took half an hour," he thought, "but it would have been longer

            if Nan hadn't gone to bed early. She gave me a chance to sneak out now instead of at

            eleven. Jenny does look so sweet and delicate like that, sleeping with her forehead

            up this end.  If it weren't for the moonlight, I wouldn't be able to see her at all."

In reality, Jentil Manor was dark enough in the daytime, because of the surrounding plant life around and above its wooden structure. At night, it would be pitch black, but this was a dream:

            Percy gently lowered his hand onto her forehead and stroked her hair backwards,

            until he reached the start of the ponytail.

            She opened her eyes suddenly, and then smiled as she recognised him.

            "Percy, what time is it?"

            "About quarter past ten, my darling."

            Jenny sat up and put her arms around Percy as he sat in the doorway of Jentil Manor.

            "Isn't it nice to have all of those trees above us?" said Percy, as he looked out at the

            surrounding environment which had served as a concealment for Jentil Manor in

            the daytime for fifteen weeks.

            "Percy, I could almost make a picture of your face, right now. You look like a

            handsome young adventurer in your black and white clothes with those lovely eyes

            looking up at an angle."

            Percy looked at Jenny. She was wearing black sandshoes, a white dress with a black

            jumper on over its top half, and transparent stockings kept her legs warm.

            "I think you look so lovely that I wish that the whole world would leave us alone for

            a long time, so that we could be together instead of at schools far apart," said Percy.

            "I wish something like that too," said Jenny.

            "Well why don't we go off and have an adventure now?" asked Percy.

            "Okay, let's go for a walk.  Shall we go out your way to the street?"
            "I've never been out your way. We could climb over the tennis court fence quietly

            and..."

*          *          *          *

            Percy and Jenny had soon made their way through Jenny's garden and down the sleep

            but short driveway to Burns Road.

            They walked along Burns Road, arm in arm, passing its most productive landmark,

            Larmont Orphanage, which was also addressed in Water Street, the next street

            along. They eventually navigated the remaining streets to Wahroonga Park, and

            found the fountain empty.

            "That's funny. It's usually full of water," said Jenny.

            "Listen, I hear voices near the swings," said Percy.

            "Let's hide in the fountain and see who they are," suggested Jenny, "We won't be

            seen if they don't come this way."

            "Alright," Percy agreed, and the two of them watched a crowd of strangely dressed

            people walking past the swings with large picnic baskets. The group of some twenty

            or thirty odd people sat down on the grass, having lowered some rugs to absorb the

            dew, and began to conduct a nocturnal picnic.

            "Their clothes must be from the early twentieth century," said Jenny, "because they

            look like the people in my history book pictures, well sort of anyway."

            "You're right, Jenny, and I have a strange feeling that I have actually met these people

            once before... That's it! They're a group that I called the Wanderers of Wahroonga."

            "Let's join in with them," said Jenny.

            "No wait; I've got another idea. Last time they let me join in, but sent me home to bed

            when they were ready to pack up. This time, why don't we wait until they pack up?

            Then we can follow them out of here and see where they go?"

            "Well we could do that, but I'd rather meet them. I won't let them send us home. You

            wait and see."

            "Alright then, let's go," said Percy.

            Then they simply strolled over and introduced themselves. Percy and the Wanderers

            remembered each other, but Jenny was new to all of them. The two young children

            joined in with the unusual evening festivities, and then came the familiar

            instruction from the man called Aygin.

            "It's very late. Don't you two need to be going home to your beds?"

            "But some of you are young children like us," said Jenny.

            "Now why didn't I think of saying that last time?" thought Percy.

            Jenny continued: "We were really hoping to learn more about you. We're outsiders,

            and my school English books say outsiders are a little different to most people.

            Shouldn't we stick together?"
            "I guess you can see why we're out here in the first place," said Percy.

            "Alright then, perhaps I should be honest," said Aygin, "It is not easy for us to trust

            people outside of our extraordinary group. We are called the Ninthstar Nomads, but

            your calling us 'the Wanderers of Wahroonga' is also clever. We were actually born

            in the late nineteenth century, but every so many years, a strange star called the

            Ninthstar appears over earth, where we are and then vanishes. We will then be

            transported nine years into the future. Hence the name Ninthstar. It's not always nine,

            actually. Sometimes it's eighteen or twenty-seven, but always multiples of nine. Then

            we will live in that time period until the Ninthstar comes again. This time we have

            been here for four years. We usually avoid people, but you're one of the few who has

            ever seen us twice, Percy. We all have the strange properties in our bodies, which

            make us susceptible to the time spanning properties of the Ninthstar."

            "Well I hope you're here for a little longer," said Jenny.

            "We cannot remain here indefinitely," said Aygin, "but we have wandered in many

            places which are in fact all the same Wahroonga, but in different time periods. Our

            powers are confusing to most people, but we are aware of your problem. Percy

            cannot be in Killara and Wahroonga at the same time, which has the effect of

            separating you two during school terms. However, we have one last gift for you,

            before we depart from this time period. Even now I can feel the Ninthstar

            approaching the earth, but you must remember the jewels in the hair of the ladies

            and girls in our group. Each jewel has a different power according to its colour. We

            shall give you a green jewel, which can teleport its holder to any place on earth.

            Either of you can hold onto it and visit the other from Wahroonga or Killara. You

            have only to exchange what your time period's people refer to as telephone

            numbers in order to arrange your engagements for the future. The Ninthstar is

            coming. We must leave you for now."

            "Thank you, all of you," said Percy, as Aygin handed him a green jewel.

            "Percy look, they're glowing grey somehow," said Jenny, and then the Wanderers

            of Wahroonga were gone.

            "We'll be years older if we see them again," said Percy, "but they've done something

            wonderful for both of us."
            "Let's try using it together," said Jenny, "Do you think that it could take us back to

            Jentil Manor?"

            "We could try touching hands with the jewel in between our palms."

            "Like this," said Jenny, "Yes I can feel that it will work. Percy, you think us back to

            Jentil Manor."

            "Alright stand by. I'm going to teleport us back."

            They both glowed a green colour, and then they were standing on the roof of Jentil           Manor.

            "Smart stone," said Percy, "It moved us up a bit so we wouldn't bump our heads on

            the roof. We were standing up when we left the park."
            "Now we can be together often," said Jenny.

*          *          *          *

The real Percy Dale awoke. It was morning. He felt robbed by reality, but he was not to

know of his future with an adult Jenny Winters. To the young Percy Dale, reality and the dream world had stolen from each other. The reality of his being awake in his room that morning had stolen the experiences (with Jenny and the Wanderers) away from him; and the irony was that the time spent unwittingly on those dreams themselves had robbed him of the reality, that he had intended to pursue in the form of a night prowl. He also felt disappointed that the dream had not allowed him to indulge his giantess vore fantasy.

The concepts of dreams and reality are not two separate and distinct entities. They are capable of overlapping, interaction with each other; and a thought or experience in either one of their worlds can stimulate a thought or experience in the other.