It was supposed to be a cake made to look like Julie's favorite park. A cake that represented her favorite past-time: beekeeping at the local community garden, right in the middle of the park. But weirdly, she could not pull her eyes from the blue frosting in the corner of the cake. Meant to represent the little pond at the park, the frosting was hypnotizing to Julie. 

"Why?" she wondered.  

The edges of the cake seemed to disappear into infinity, as if the rest of the room was a sea of blue frosting.  

Julie rubbed her eyes and looked up to see two beaming faces: her parents.  

"Do you like it?" Dad asked.  

"It's beautiful," Julie replied. "It looks exactly like the park." She didn't want to tell her parents that she was seeing things on her sixteenth birthday. 

The whole day had been weird. She woke up more thirsty than she could ever remember. She stumbled to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. And then another. And then another. Four glasses later, she stopped herself. She was still thirsty. But there had to be boundaries. 

All day at school Julie was not able to concentrate. Even in Physics, her favorite class, she found her eyes heavy and her throat dry.  

"Am I coming down with something?" she wondered. But she didn't feel sick. She felt stronger than ever before, actually. Ten minutes into Mr. Darby's lecture on potential energy versus kinetic energy, she couldn't hold out any longer. She rested her head on the desk, and everything went black. 

All of a sudden, she was at the start of a road. The road was amber-hued, and everything felt very warm and pleasant. She recognized the road as the one just outside her house. Julie felt compelled to walk down the road. She needed to see just what was beyond the next curve. And then the next. And then the next. 

Pretty soon, Julie found herself at a clearing with a large lake. The lake looked so beautiful and big. So refreshing and cool. She knew what she must do. Walking up to the edge of the lake, she reached her hands up over her head towards the sky. She bent forward. 

Splash! She dove straight into the water. For one fleeting second, Julie remembered that she could not swim. Panic seized her body and she suddenly could not move her arms. 

Then something happened. Julie began to relax. She took a long calming breath and started to move forward. 

She could swim! Look at that. What a pleasant surprise. Julie wondered why her parents never allowed her to take swimming lessons. They always said it was too dangerous. 

Dangerous! What ever could they mean? This was divine! Swimming felt as simple and easy as breathing in her dream. Julie hoped she would never wake up. 

The lake seemed to help her, water pulling her to the edge of the lake where she saw water slipping out of the lake into a river. A river! That looked like fun. 

She allowed the water to pull her towards and through the river. It was so beautiful and peaceful! There was no sound but her breath and the water lapping against her movements. Julie leaned back in the water and began to float. 

Staring up at the sky and letting the river float her along, Julie felt at one with all things around her. She felt at peace. 

"This is so much better than being in Mr. Darby's physics class," she thought. 

She could feel things shifting underneath her. The water began to tremble and shake! Everything in Julie's mind told her to get scared, and to worry about what was happening. But Julie couldn't help but feel safe and secure. She felt totally in charge of her surroundings. The river became a waterfall and she slipped and shimmied down the waterfall. Luckily, she hit no rocks. It was as if she were a fish. She landed in a fresh pool of water with a smooth splash. 

The river continued to wind, what felt like for hours! The river winded down the mountain and through beautiful, sandy hills. And then she saw a large body of water. Giant, blue, and calling her name. She couldn't wait to see what it was like! 

And then, all of a sudden Mr. Darby's voice filled her ears. 

"Julie! Julie, I don't appreciate you sleeping in my class!" he said with a stern voice. Julie shook her head and looked at her watch. Is that possible? Only eight minutes had passed! How did she have a whole adventure in eight minutes? How did she fall asleep in the first place? She never fell asleep in school. 

The rest of the day continued to be bizarre. She continued to drink water and feel heavy in her body. She felt clumsy all day, tripping several times before the bell rang. 

Later, looking at her birthday cake, she whispered a wish that everything go back to normal the next day. 

Julie went to sleep on her 16th Birthday thinking that the whole day was just one big weird experience. But waking up the next morning, she was not pleased to awaken from the same dream she had dreamed in Mr. Darby's class. In addition, she felt thirstier than ever. Julie wondered if she should tell her parents anything. She thought she'd better not. Finals was coming up, and it would just distract her from her studies, and make them worry about her. 

At breakfast, her mother seemed to scan Julie's face closer than usual. Julie noticed a new wrinkle in between her mother's eyebrows, which she had never seen before. 

"How are you doing, Julie?" her mother asked with a smile, but something was different. It was almost as if her mother seemed nervous! 

"Everything's just fine. Normal as usual," Julie lied. 

"I noticed that you got up early to drink water this morning," her mother continued. "Did you sleep well?" 

"Yes mother," Julie said, annoyed. "I slept really deeply in fact. Deep enough to have a really great dream, in fact."

Her mother choked on her bite of pancake, and then cleared her throat. 

"What exactly was the dream about, Julie?" she asked.

Julie suddenly felt weird about telling her mother any more information. She got up to leave. "I gotta leave, Mom. I have to get to school early to study for a test later today." She picked up her books and quickly left home. 

At school early, on a whim, Julie decided to stop by the school's pool. What was going on? Why was she suddenly infatuated, of all things, with water? She decided to touch the water, just to see how cold it was. 

Dipping her hand in the water, she didn't notice anything remarkable. The water was cold, just as she thought, when suddenly she looked down and saw her hand had gone blue. 

She jumped and let out a gasp. She looked at her hand again, and it was back to its normal, pinkish color. 

"It must be the weird lighting in here," she thought. "Either that, or that water is really cold." 

She put her gloves on and hurried to class, before she was late. 

On morning five of having the same dream and drinking gallons of water each day, Julie decided to do something about it. "I just have to face this. I just have to confront whatever this is, and it will go away," she thought. 

She summoned the courage over breakfast. "Mom, Dad, I have a favor to ask." Both parents stared at her expectantly. "I want to take swim lessons. I have thought it over, and I think I'm at an age where it would no longer be dangerous." Her parents were silent. "And, I think it's a good skill to have. In life." 

Her dad nodded his head, but her mom did not. Her mom's mouth was open, as if completely taken aback, and the wrinkle was back in her forehead. 

"Of course, honey," Dad said. "I think it's important to be able to swim! I always wanted to take you to Florida during our vacations, but your mom always insisted on staying here or camping up north."  

Her mom looked uncomfortable. "I don't like hot weather," Mom said. "You know that, Dennis." She looked tired all of a sudden. 

"Are you alright, Mom?" Julie asked. "Would you like to sit down?" 

Her mother sighed and sat down. "I don't want you to take classes. I have my reasons, and I will not allow it!" She was nearly yelling now. 

Both father and daughter stared at her, and then looked at each other. Silence spread in in the room. 

"Well, darling, if you feel that strongly about it, we won't let Julie take the lessons." Julie struggled to remain calm. 

"Why can't I take swimming lessons? I'm nearly a grown-up! This is ludicrous!" Julie yelled. 

"Don't raise your voice to your mother," Dad said. "She has her reasons. We don't need to know why. Just respect her decision. Clear and simple." 

"Clear and simple? Easy to say," Julie thought. "Whatever the reason is, I don't care. I'm going to learn how to swim, whether they like it or not!" Julie had made a decision.