This was where they came to her, those fantasy friends she lured out of her imagination. A 50 mile drive from the crowd and concrete-metal of the city brought her to her place where sky and horizon lulled her to dream. A man from Venus met her there once and swept her away in blue arms to Saturn for a night of gyrations on the ever-spinning rings. Once, in a summer shower, a cloud creature dropped down out of the heavens, to wrap himself around her, engulfing her in a fog of total sensation. Another time a tree man sauntered along, dragging his roots behind him, and invited her to climb all over him. She fell asleep, cradled gently in his soft branches. There were grass gnomes that grew up to her size, and lanky-limbed colossi folding down to meet her. They were fun, all of her fantastical trysts. Now she heard footsteps in the meadow behind. She turned and saw a man, masculine aesthetic the twin of her ideal. He smiled and she beaconed. She wondered vaguely, as his kiss began, "Is this one reality?"

Story #299