UNKNOWN COUNTRY   I heard the sound of the sea. To open my eyes was difficult. The light was so intense, it took time to get use to it. Slowly I opened them and found myself back on an unblemished white beach. I saw that the sea was not far away.   The water was dark and unattractive. There were waves which seemed to bubble. It looked like stormy weather was approaching but there was no wind at all.   I stood up and looked around . Nothing and nobody was in the area, no trees or bushes nothing. Very strange.   Carefully, I touched the sand and discovered …It was not sand but an unknown substance. It swelled with every move I made. What was it?  The air was pungent with a delicious smell. The aroma from a kitchen in a five star hotel.   Far away, I saw two yellow mountains. Because I am an adventurer and a curious type, I decided to walk in their direction to discover what there was and more importantly where I was. Of course I had to know was happening here. Perhaps I will meet others who can illuminate me.   Slowly I began to walk in the direction of the two mountains. On the way I tormented my brain, with the question, how could  I have come to this place?   It was extremely tiring  walking over that swelling sand, or whatever it was. It seemed endless, also the heat was terrible. The temperature was a disaster.   When I was half way, I saw a huge yellowy block hanging from the side of the mountain. It looked as if it could collapse at any moment. For safety reasons, I decided to approach it from a different angle.   Suddenly the sky changed, in less than a minute it was dark. Colossal white hail stones fell. Never in my life, had I seen them so big. Directly I went flat to my belly and covered my head, to save myself from a headache or  worse. As suddenly as it started, it stopped..   Some of the hail stones remained in tact. I  realised, I was very thirsty. With two hands I took the ice and licked. I tried to get some liquid, but what was this? I spat it out, that’s not water, its salt! What kind of a place is this?    I finally came close to the mountain. Still no sign of life. No trees or even a bush and still no people or animals. Am I an Alien? Possibly I would find the answer when I  climbed the mountain.   It was something else, climbing that mountain. Slipping and sliding in the soft yellow stuff, sometimes sinking or falling down and sliding backwards. When I reached the top I was  sure I looked awful but who cares? I was alone.   The view  was breath taking. Below was the rough dark brown sea and far, far away, there was a black edge to the sky line. It seemed that this ocean was joined to the sky. Or was I  hallucinating? From this position I could see it was an island.   The top of the mountain was boiling from the heat. Whilst I stood there, I felt the ground beneath my feet disappear, as if I fell into a volcano.   Whilst I was tumbling , I thought about the nature-lovers who would be jealous of my situation and that made me a privileged man but at the same time going directly to hell.   At this moment I was content with the yellow stuff, because it saved me when I reached the end of my descent . I didn’t break anything.   But the next moment I was screaming, almost blind from the yellow light that was surrounding me , stunned from pain and heat.   Then the sides of the mountain collapsed and the yellow texture that had seemed too for away to escape, took me and everything with it, dropping me finally on the beach where I promptly lost  consciousness.   I discovered that I was back on the strange beach, but now it was covered with the yellow matter from the mountain.    I had no time to collect my thoughts because dark red rain started to fall. It was painful to my skin. The smell changed. More spicy but still delicious.   I saw in a reflex from the corner of my eyes, that the yellow substance from the other mountain was also melting. It happened fast. It was an unstoppable stream that flowed in my direction. When I noticed this, I  started to run for my life. Slowly, slowly, it would overtake me. I way doomed. Escape was impossible.   I couldn’t breath and didn’t see the tree stump ( is it a tree stump?  Nothing is what it seemed) that crossed my path. I fell heavily.   The stream was almost there and would wash over me. Was this the end?   Far away, I heard somebody calling : Veliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. I looked up and saw the always smiling and friendly face of my wife.   “Good morning, did you sleep well? Why were you  screaming?”   In her hands, she had a big pan of scrambled eggs. One of the eggs had a broken yolk, the yellow substance was running out. Melting cheese was running down and spreading all over. She had seasoned it with salt and red pepper. On the edge was a wooden spoon. The penny dropped, I realised I had been dreaming . In my nightmare I had been walking around in a pan of scrambled eggs. Sunk in the yolk I’d run from the melting cheese and met the wooden spoon.   Scrambled eggs are one of my favourite foods, but now it would always have a twist to the taste.                                                                                         Written by Veli Göcmen oglu.