"He was asleep in a short time and he dreamed of Africa when he was a boy and the long golden beaches and the white beaches, so white they hurt your eyes, and the high capes and the great brown mountains. He lived along that coast now every night and in his dreams he heard the surf roar and saw the native boats come riding through it. He smelled the tar and oakum of the deck as he slept and he smelled the smell of Africa that the land breeze brought at morning." Old Man and the Sea


The grandfather and Lilly had in common the ease of slipping into a deep and fast sleep.  The old man would not stay that way for long, it was only in the beginning that the dreams came, and then the dreams themselves that awoke him sometimes many times in the night where he would then, by instinct, rise and look out the slits of the shades to see the condition of the surf or he might peak into the rooms of grandmother or granddaughter.  If there was nothing of concern on his mind, he could slip as easily back into the thin mantle of the next dream and he quite looked forward to it.  He did this and to the image of what he later thought must be a Baby's Ear shell came to him vividly, as he sat down on the this surf of a beach and watched the strange drawing pattern of the shell curl and scoot along the bottom to create a strange and squiggly drawing of sorts.  The water in his dream was not entirely clear but an artificial green and it was warm.  He cup his hands and bring some of the green water to his mouth. It was sweet but did not taste like anything that he had ever yet encountered.  Pictures of dolphins who lived under neath the islands in sand caves came to him. The air above him had weight and was sweet as well, something strangely enough like the subtle taste of cinnamon.  And then, abruptly, came an image of underneath the water, inside the vast green, and he was, of course, breathing now underneath, certainly gilled, in along the hull of a golden ship.  His second, conscious mind, commented that he knew he was dreaming, and his swimming self nodded pleasantly but opined that he must be allowed to continue, just this one time.  The dream came to him in waves and it felt warm and comforted him.  He looked up and could see at the surface his Lily looking down at him from a surfboard that leaped and charged by the rhythm of the waves.  Her mouth moved but there was no sound.  His eyes opened. A very sharp sliver of sunshine had placed onto the floor in front of him. "And so the dreams become stranger on vacation," he thought to himself, shook his head and rose to check on the direction of the wind.