It started to spin.

I closed my eyes; I also got motion sickness.

It spun faster and faster, so fast that I was glued to the back and unable to lift a finger.

I felt sicker and sicker.

I couldn't make a sound anymore; and breathing was an extremely difficult process.

It spun on and on, seemingly forever.

I had no idea how long it spun - it could have been seconds, or minutes, or hours, or days, I just spent the entire time trying to make it through to the next breath.

Finally it started to slow.

I knew it was slowing because my head started to spin in the opposite direction and I was able to move a little.

I threw up, and the - er - puke - wasn't there. Somehow it had dissappeared. Was there some way it had gone through the barrier that wouldn't let me through?

I felt like some sort of wind was pushing against me, trying to keep me against the tiny wall.

I pushed against the wind to lift an arm and push against the barrier in front of me. It was still there, and still as obstinate as ever.

The box started to stin slower and slower until it came to a gentle stop.

The actual movement was gentle, but as soon as it stopped a bright light suddenly engulfed; instantly blinding me.

The box may have stopped spinning, but my head didn't.

I concentrated on not getting sick again.

All I could see was the bright light; I couldn't even see my hands on my face.

I must have stood there for a while.

Finally, after my head stopped spinning, I somehow managed to pry myself off the wall and stand straight.

That's when my brain started to work again.

What had just happened?

Maybe this was a nightmare.

Could people get sick in nightmares?

There was no logical reason to explain what had happened.

Maybe somebody had hit me so hard that they knocked me out when I went through the crack.

Maybe I had died.

Maybe I was unconcious - kind of in the same situation as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.

I decided that The most logical explinations were either that I'd died or was in Oz.

Actually, the Oz seemed like the most rational, because in the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's house spins around super fast and everything, right?

So, I wasn't going to spend any more time trying to figure it out here - eventually I'd wake up again anyway.

But had whatever just happened really taken all night?

It was obvious that the light I was seeing was sunlight.

Oh yeah - no being weirded out - odd things happened in Oz.

My eyes were starting to adjust.

I didn't see the familiar and comforting tall buildings of New York City.

I didn't see any munchkins either.

What I saw was too... open. It made me feel like the entire world could see me.

There was a cottage with barred windows and no door directly in front of me, and rolling hills beyond that.

I turned around. I seemed to be on the edge of a very very tiny village - but it was more like a cluster of houses than a village. Nobody was approaching the cottage behind me. Maybe it was a jail.

Maybe this was my own Oz, because I didn't see a yellow brick road, a house, or a witch's legs anywhere. And I'm pretty sure there was no munchkind-jail in the Wizard of Oz.

I took a step forward.

Apparently, my invisible barrier was now non existant, because as much as I waved my arms around, they didn't come into contact with anything except open air.

A dirt path wound it's way between the tiny houses that looked sort of like gingerbread houses.

I realized now that booths were set up along the path and all the people were stopping and buying things at them. Apparently, this was some sort of mini-market.

When I looked at the people closer, I saw that they seemed normal height. Well, most of them did.

Some of the people didn't seem quite so human-looking.

I shivered and then laughed at myself.

This was my own Oz - nothing could hurt me here.

Then I heard the voice coming from the cottage behind me.

"Ah, my sweet," it said. I spun around to see the ugliest creature I'd ever seen - and it certainly wasn't the slightest bit human. It was hideous and -

"I see you are not from here. Come closer, I am not as bad as I look," it said. It's voice was so sweet, so soft, it was hard to believe that anything that sounded so pretty could look so ugly - but no, it wasn't ugly! What was I thinking? It actually was pretty good-looking.

I walked foward.

"You are lost? I can help you. Come here. I have something that will help you get back to New York!"

I all but skipped toward the angelic figure in the window. Of course I believed it. It was impossible not to.

I found my self thinking of my nice warm bed...

I was awfully tired...

And I'd be able to email Gabby...

Go online...

Call my housekeeper, Myra... she would probably be angry that I got lost.

Tell everyone about this weird dream...

Of course this creature could help me wake up!

I found myself a foot away from the window when I heard a cough behind me.

It was just a normal cough, but it knocked me out of a stupor I didn't know I was in.

I saw how ugly, menacing, hating, and relatively evil the creature behind the bars looked.

Probably it being held prisoner for a reason. There was no way this would be able to get me home... was there?

How had he known I was from New York?

I felt suspicious.

Now the creature was glaring past me.

It turned around and went further into the cottage.

Then I remembered the cough and turned around to see who my savior was.

I felt like crying. If this was my Oz, couldn't I make the creatures what I wanted them to be? Why couldn't I have them all be human?

The creature I was facing looked like it was two-thousand years old. It was short and wrinkled and ugly.

Maybe it was an ancient munchkin.

At any rate, it was staring at me, "!scidn szonck gondsadanN"

What the heck did that mean?

"Huh?" I asked, bewildered.

"?sjid ghimaor gnogE" it asksed - At least, I think it was asking.

It almost seemed like I could catch a - shadow - almost - of what it was trying to say, but I couldn't quite make out the words.

"What do you-? I mean-" I stuttered.

The ancient-munchkin nodded knowledgably.

"You are lucky I speak your language good," it said.

"Um... okay," I answered, "What are you anyway?"

The things' eyebrows shot up - almost like it was amused.

"!hsnoB - I a' knome o'course!"

A knome? As in, like, a garden knome?!?

"Uh... am I dead?" I asked the knome, (If it was a knome,) "You're not an ancient munchkin?"

The knome laughed. Laughed! Can you believe it? How rude!

"You a' moss certainly not dead, fair maiden." it laughed, "...and I don't ezactly know what a ancient munchkin is, but I aint one o' them!" It was doubled over with laughter.

Well, at least I wasn't dead - that meant I was in Oz.

"So I'm in Oz, then? Well - my own Oz?" I asked.

"Oz? This aint a Oz!"

"What country then?" I challenged.

Of course this was my own Oz... what else could it be?

"Kyrria o'course..." A look of concern passed over his face.

If it was possible for creatures in your own personal Oz to think you were crazy, then I was pretty sure this knome thought that I was crazy.

His eyes widened, he turned a little, and he bowed.

I looked up.

All of the people/creatures had stopped whatever they were doing and were bowing or curtsying.

Maybe I was losing my sanity.

Even the munchkins didn't bow for the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz - did they?

Walking up the pathway was a very cute guy, probably around seventeen old, walking with a girl around fifteen. The boy was bowing back constantly and the girl was nodding her head. She reminded me of a bobble-head.

I didn't want to go against the rules or something, so I decided that I'd better bow too.

The knome gave me a funny look.

I wondered what Kyrria was. I'd taken geography class last year, and I had never heard of a Kyrria before. Maybe the knome had misunderstood and given me the name of this village.

When the cute guy that inspired the bowing was a distance down the road, the knome finally got up, and so I did too.

He asked me, "Why you no' curtsy?"

Curtsy? Who knew how to curtsy? (Besides the freaks that were curtsying here.)

I only shrugged.

"What- (I debated: city, town or village?) village am I in?" I asked. The knome's suspicious look diminished and he laughed again.

"Don't you know nothing? You in Frell."