it was me and other members of my family and friends, most of them female but chris was there too at least i feel that he was. I was driving. It was in a foreign but somewhat familiar town. perhaps it was in the town that has the downtown. We were following directions we had been given to get to a certain place. We were getting close. i saw we had to go up an inclined bridge. The pavement was inlaid with beautiful leaf-patterns, the railing was picturesque. I drove slowly to the end of the road, and the beginning of a marshy strip ahead of which was an island, to the right of which was a lake. It was all very magical. There was a black man lying down in a cage-looking ferry-type little boat. I knew this was who we were supposed to see. We got his attention. Gabrielle started to tell him the address but then this girl that reminded me of Jackie Rays Chris said, Come on! impatiently, If we tell him were looking for the (gondola? gazebo? something along these lines) he would know. He said if thats where we were going, then it was free, and instead of ferrying us, he started giving every two of us a tiny little rowboat each, and two oars. I got paired up by chance with Gabrielle. I wanted to row, and was getting a little grabby with the oars, but i neednt have because she said i would have to row first because she would just be so afraid that getting in the little boat at all would occupy all her attention. I was not afraid at all. But then when our turn came up, this slender oriental girl hooshed our boat out into the water before I even got in. Wait Wait! I and several people (including my brother and my mom, or at least i felt their presence) said. I kind of laughed, said, You shoved her aloft in an unmanned bathtub! and sloshed out into the lake after her. I caught up with her, and stuck the oars into the oarlocks for her. There wasnt really room for me in the miniscule dinghy anyway, so I just swam along beside Gabrielle, who wasnt quite in control of the boat yet and was kind of bobbling along near the shore. She was already starting to get over her fear, though, i noted in the background of my attention. In the foreground of my attention, I said, Look, there are huge fish in here! And it was true, there swam by me a fancy fish, silhouetted under the surface, must have been at least a foot long and half that high. It circled around and swam directly at me. I was unnerved, and splashed at it, joked with Gabrielle a little. It moved off, but soon came right back. It was definitely coming for me. I splashed some more, but it came back again. It had teeth. I said to Gab, Ill see you a little later after it loses interest, and I swam very fast, practically skimming the surface of the water, back towards the dock we had started from. I lost it finally, then woke up. Now. Heres the strange part, the part that has caused me to make a pact with myself. This is not the first time I have been afraid of animals you ordinarily dont think of as harmful. Once i dreamed of a big bunny in a dark park that unnerved me the same way. But before I went to sleep, I had been playing around with Ann, who had said Megan was going to have hair, you know. And I said, no shes going to have scales! Pearlescent, chromacolored scales! And when she flashes her tail, itll be like a million diamonds in the sun! What Im saying is, whos to say she couldnt have heard me, and look at the beautiful enchanted place she set up for me (I forgot to mention, there was also a very small blue whale in that lake, and other life forms various and exotic), and look at what a magnificent specimen she turned into, and look at what a ninny I became when she tried to get my attention. Surely by now she must be getting frustrated by my numerous attempts to run away from her in my dreams! So I made the pact with myself: I will face whatever animal comes next in my dreams.