Flying ...

He slept and while he slept he dreamt of far away lands and his body was flying.
''How can I fly?'' he thought whilst dreaming. ''I am skimming the gentle, grey waves of the lake.'' He had always loved the Lake District and returned there, as and when he could for a spot of 'R and R' as they call it. He laughed to himself, and spun and spun until he was dizzy. ''I better stop, or I may be sick and I'm loving evey minute of this. Who would think I could fly?''

He flew up, over snow capped rocky mountains and soared down into the lush, green valleys bursting with the new life of spring. Trailing his fingers through the flowers and grass he flew low next to the ground, narrowly missing prickly bushes and mounds of rocks.

He didn't notice that the seasons changed in the wrong order, and second by second not month by month.

Now it was Christmas and he shivered as he felt the snowflakes melting on his upturned face. Sticking his tongue out he felt the ice, it was cold and wet in his mouth. Tasting mince pies that his wife made, drinking dry sherry and hearing lots of childrens chatter he smiled. ''My children'' he said out loud ''now have grandchildren, and I love them all. I love Christmas and the excitement.''

His arms flailed and windmilled as he avoided the rooftops and newly bare trees that had dropped their golden leaves in Autumn. Autumn was his favourite season, he walked his dog, he remembered and smoked his pipe as he strolled along. The smells of the season came to his nose, fires in gardens burning off the dead branches and garden trimmings. The cool nip in the air and with the cloudless skies so blue.

The sun blinded his eyes, ''It must be Summer'' he exclaimed, and giggled. ''Why am I giggling ? '' and asking himself the question out loud made him laugh even more. He heard a bird chirping and tried to turn to see it, but it flew off before he caught sight of it. Yet he still heard its song near his ear. How lovely that we have animals and birds in the world he uttered. ''Life is wonderful and has been wonderful to me''.

''What's he saying ? And the machine that is beeping next to him is doing what exactly?'' he heard a woman ask, it sounded like his wife.

A male voice, deep and rich in its timbre replied ''He cannot speak, the stroke was extensive and I'm sorry to say it's affected his speech and all along one side. We have completed various tests, such as ice water on his lips to assess swallowing and shining the light in his eyes as you know to check his reactions and to fully assess his consciousness levels but he appears to be semi-conscious for now. The machine is monitoring his heart rate and blood pressure. We can only hope he will come out of this state a little bit more.Then he will receive intensive physiotherapy, speech therapy and more. Although it probably won't work.''

''HELP ME'' he screamed but of course no-one heard. He was trapped. His own body had caught him up and kept him locked deep within.