Once upon a rather special time, a man, named Jeremy, lived right in the centre of the huge metropolis, Paracity..

He wore new 3 piece suits that looked remarkably older than they were.. He wore striped ties that seemed to be just that little bit too scraggily striped… He wore his straw blonde hair like it had just that minute not been combed.. He wore a bowler hat… And atop it all, the biggest smile you ever did see..

Every day he took a train to work where he spent his day drinking tea, eating vegan biscuits and filling out forms..

"Good morning", he would say to everyone, as he entered his workplace cheerfully each morning.. and sometimes, because he'd been up late drinking coffee and watching TV the night before, his voice was really rather crunchy, ..

But Jeremy didn't really quite fit in.. Maybe it was his scruffily striped ties that he never quite knew how to tie properly.. or maybe it was his new suits that always looked so ancient, and like he never took them off, not even to sleep or bathe in (though of course he did!) .. Or maybe it was just the way he said "Good morning" to everyone in a slightly too cheerful manner, with that occasional added crunchiness..

Whatever it was, Jeremy really didn't quite know it himself, and would often stare out of his office window at the big gray buildings that manically smothered the horizon about him, and wonder dreamily just what might lie beyond them all.

One day, after Jeremy had left his office, and ridden the train home, he noticed a new shop that had just opened up on the corner of Main St. and Main Rd.. He stopped and smiled in the window..

The shop sold musical instruments of all kinds, and he looked at the big brass drum in the corner of the window and imagined himself being a big brass band leader. "Oooh".. He thought as he absentmindedly stuck his little fingers in his ears and mumbled to himself, "frightfully loud!".. There were trumpets and trombones, oboes and organs, drums, triangles, violins, guitars, electronic keyboards, saxophones, clarinets and even a rainbow coloured piano..

Jeremy dreamt of playing all the instruments at once, but he looked down at his only one pair of hands, and touched his only one mouth.. He'd never tried to play an instrument before, and wondered if he'd ever really be able too..

On an impulse, Jeremy walked into the shop… "Hallo," said a little old lady, "I've got just the instrument for you".. Jeremy was more than a little taken aback, but managed to counter with a big smile anyway. "Oh?" he said with a puzzled look in his eyebrows.. "Yes.. This is just what you need", continued the little old lady, as she pulled out an old bamboo flute from behind the counter..

It was as if Jeremy were in a dream. He paid the little old lady some money, took the bamboo flute, and walked out of the shop.. "Good luck Jeremyman!" called the little old lady from behind him as Jeremy stepped out onto the busy bustley street.

Jeremy looked about him, shook his head as if to wake himself up, looked at the bamboo flute in his hands, turned and looked back into the shop window.. !!!! He could not believe his eyes, instead of the new music shop, in front of him, there now stood the old abandoned, dusty, boarded up, plastic bag shop, just as it had been for as long as he could remember..

He walked the last block home in a daze., not really being fully able to believe what had just happened to him. But the reality of the bamboo flute tinglingly pulsating in his hands..

That night, he put the bamboo flute to his mouth for the first time.. it made such a sweet enchanting noise, but the notes came out all bumbily, in the wrong order, tumbling over each other clumsily like playful puppy dogs, and the man downstairs banged on his ceiling angrily.. "I can't hear my TV he shouted!"..

"Hmmf" Thought Jeremy, as he took the flute from his lips.

Over the next days, he found himself unable to properly concentrate at work, and kept filling out his forms wrong and forgetting to eat his biscuits.. Spending more and more time looking out of the window at the gray horizon of office blocks..

Jeremy was born in the city you see. His parents had moved there 3 years before his birth, and once settled, had seen no reason to move again.. "Everything we need is right here." his father used to say. "If you can't find it on Main St., you'll find it on Main Rd." his mother would add.. And to an extent, that really seemed to be true, at least Jeremy always believed it to be so. - So even after he'd grown up and left home, he never saw any real need to leave the city, though this never stopped him wondering how life might be, living beyond the limits of suburbia..

In the evenings Jeremy started going to the park to practice on his little flute. At first not even the ducks liked to hear him play.. They would all squawk and beat their wings splashingly against the lake surface, and tumble fly run to the other side the lake.. But after some weeks of training, as the sound became smoother and more beautiful they gradually started to come over to listen to him, and Jeremy would often dance a little jig too, which looked quite funny - especially with his suit on, and tie, and bowler hat, and muddy shoes..

As the weeks passed, Jeremy became more and more dreamy at work. "Good Morning", he'd shout cheerfully when it was time to go home, and really quite late in the afternoon. And his work friends would look at each other with wide puzzled eyes, and once he'd gone, rush over to eat his biscuits he'd left piled on the corner of his desk.

One afternoon, the big boss lady came in. She was really awfully bossy, and everyone always sat bolt upright, pretending to work extra hard whenever they heard her bossy footsteps coming along the corridor. Well.. On this particular day, her footsteps sounded extra bossy, and everyone sat extra bolt upright, looking as concentrated and diligent as they possibly could… Everyone except Jeremy that is.. Jeremy sat looking dreamily out of the window, stirring his tea around and around and around with his pencil..

"Mr. Nebula!", exploded the bossy boss lady.

Jeremy was so taken by surprise, he felt like he'd jumped out of his skin. His hand shot out straight, knocked his tea all over his forms, and sent a pile of biscuits flying to the floor.

"Yes.. Hmm.. Good Morning..", Stumbled Jeremy, and tried his best to smile.

"Mr. Nebula", continued the Ms Bossy Boots lady, "just what is the meaning of this!". And she thrust a handful of forms right under Jeremy's nose.

Jeremy sat back a bit, looked at the forms, and replied.. "..err.. papers.. They're forms m'lady, umm, Ms Parkinson I mean.."

"I can see they're forms you fool!" She trumpeted, "But look at them, they're all filled out wrong! Every last one of them! Don't you know the difference between class A's and Class C's yet! How long have you been doing this job! And just look at all the subsections! Are you a complete imbecile? These forms went out to the customer support group, and they ended up overstocking on articles 11 & 16 and dispatching articles 18b and 20a as free samples to everyone registered through us! Do you realize what this means! This will cost the firm thousands of dollars and put us back weeks if not more! Mr. Nebula, I can see no reason for this behavior of yours, I'd like you to leave the office this very minute, and not come back! Mr. Nebula, you're fired!"

"Thank you very much" replied Jeremy quite sweetly, "Good Morning!".. He smiled a confused smile, picked up his hat, and walked out of the door.

Ms Parkinson stormed out of the office and back up the corridor tunnel toward her den, and all of the workers rushed over to Jeremy's desk to pick up his biscuits. "Vegan biscuits are the best", one said.. "Yum yes, the others agreed!"..

It took Jeremy 2 blocks before he realized just what had happened to him, and it wasn't until he had boarded his train, that he really realized just what it all meant... On the seat opposite him, sat a rather large man with his belly bursting forward only being obstructed by his greasy T-shirt, which proclaimed in grubby faded letters "sports champ".. Further up the carriage, a young boy was running backward and forward with boundless energy, on the boys T-shirt was written "Teletubby".. "hmmmf", thought Jeremy with a smile.. "they've swapped T-shirts..".. Suddenly it really all became clear to him how topsy-turvy the world really was.. For 8 whole years he'd been filling out forms! Day in and day out, and now.. suddenly.. he was free of them! What a sweet taste he thought.. No more forms! He smiled.. turned to the little old lady sitting next to him (who indeed looked rather familiar), said "Good Morning!", and there wasn't even a hint of crunchiness in his voice, and got up and left the train...

That night Jeremy sat in his suit on the muddy bank of the lake at the park, playing his flute until the moon came up. He then stood up, bowed and throwing his hat as far as he could into the lake, shouted "Goodnight!".

Well.. Suddenly Jeremy had a lot of time on his hands, and he would walk up Main St., and down Main Rd., wondering what he should be doing, and often he'd be seen in the middle of the park playing his bamboo flute and dancing his funny little jig.

Weeks went by, and Jeremy would go to bed feeling quite drained, not really knowing quite why he was there anymore.. Often his thoughts would drift to life beyond Paracity, until one day he suddenly made a decision.. He would pack up his things and leave town!

Once the decision was made, there was really no holding him back.. He remembered that his uncle owned a small cottage, on the edge of a big forest, which had not been lived in, nor visited, since his uncle first bought it. "Oh! .. That place is too far away!" His uncle would grumbley tell him, ".. and the air's no good there due to the altitude and all those trees! No thanks, I'll stay here in the city thank you very much, thank you, no thanks!".

So Jeremy rang his uncle and asked if he might go and stay there for a while. Of course uncle was only too happy to let Jeremy stay there, but not without some words of caution first: "You be careful out there Jeremy my boy," his uncle warned, "your liable to get eaten by wild bears and die of pneumonia! And remember to take enough sandwiches, some plastic bags, a good book some thick socks, a hair drier, and an umbrella. And don't go into the forest or you'll get lost and starve yourself to death, that is if those butterflies don't get you first.".

So that was it! Jeremy was all set to leave town. He had packed everything he thought he might need into a backpack. He had on his new pair of purple overalls he'd bought especially for the occasion, (which already looked scruffy, and somehow suited him far more than his 3 piece suits ever did!), had his flute in one hand, and ticket in the other, and off he set..

Jeremy soon settled into his new home. It was an old miners cottage covered in ivy on the outside, dust on the inside, and completely surrounded by gum trees.. He'd spend his days sitting on the porch playing his flute and dancing jigs, and nobody banged on his floor complaining about not being able to hear their TV.

Often he'd sit and listen to the birds singing, trying to match their chorus with his flute, or just sit with his own silent thoughts in wide-eyed admiration of all the shades of tree-green, and of the smells and sweet breezes.. Despite his uncle's warnings, each morning he'd leave the cottage and venture into the forest taking longer and longer walks, further and further into the depths of the trees. Always, he'd take with him a little bag of fruit to eat on his journey, and often he'd find a clear spot someplace, where he'd sit and eat his food, preferably next to flowing water.

One day, after eating his nectarines, he stood and played his flute in the middle of the forest. Suddenly he was surrounded by multicoloured butterflies dancing about his head as if in rhythm to the gentle music from the flute, and from within the trees, a dear stepped shyly forward, staring up at Jeremy..

He returned home dreamily that day, thinking of the place beyond the trees he'd heard of, where nearly nothing grew, a semi desert arid area, and he wondered how such a place could be..

The following week, he set out to find it. It took him 3 days to journey through the forest. At nights he slept in his little tent he had taken with him, and ate wild strawberries that lay carpeted about him. And in the daytime, he'd often stop to play his flute and notice small animals peering at him from between the leaves and branches of nearby trees.

On the 3rd day of his journey, in the early afternoon, he reached the edge of the forest. Stretched out in front of him, lay a large area of land covered in a sandy soil with only a few bushes sparsely dotting the landscape.

That evening he camped on the edge of the forest looking out across the dry landscape in front of him.. "Wow.. " thought Jeremy.. "I wonder why there are no trees here?".

He arose early the next day, continuing his voyage on out into the dryness. After a while it became hilly, and by mid afternoon he found himself in a small valley with only one small shrub in the rut of it.. Midway down the valley he came across a cave that seemed to go back into the hillside forever… He groped his way into the deepest darkest depths of the cave, until after about 20ms he discovered a small stream, that seemed to come from nowhere, and immediately disappear once more under another rock.. Thirstily he bent down and drank.. it was such sweet water.. "This is where I want to live" thought Jeremy.. "no..", he corrected "this is where I'm going to live!".

Immediately the following morning after spending the night in the cave, he decided to head back home to his cottage and prepare for moving out there…

What can I tell you?…Time flew passed, and 3 months later, after countless trips back and forth between the cave the cottage and sometimes the city, Jeremy finally found himself living in his cave in the desert.. Beside him he had 20kgs of alfalfa seeds which he'd brought out in 5kg loads on several journeys, and all of which he'd sealed up in resealable plastic drum buckets.. He had thought about bringing rice out there too, but realized that he would really be unable to cook any food as there was no trees out there, hence no wood either.. In addition to this he also had a big packet of tomato seeds, some persimmon seeds, passion fruit seeds, a few fresh pawpaws, 6 mangoes, and 1 durian.

He set about making a little garden around his cave. First he planted tomatoes, then he got his passion fruit, persimon, pawpaw and mango seeds into the ground.. and in a special corner, he carefully planted seeds from his durian.. Each day he would go into his cave and fetch water for his seeds to drink.. and each day, he would play his flute to his garden, and dance a little jig.. He lived on nothing but sprouted alfalfa seeds, and fresh cave spring water, and rarely wore clothes.. His hair became knotted, and his skin turned golden, and Jeremy's eyes shone the clearest blue you could possibly imagine..

Slowly his garden grew..

After 2 months he became bored of just eating alfalfa sprouts, and decided to return to the cottage and the city for more supplies.. He gave everything an extra long soaking of water, and over a 2 day period, fetched several sacks of leaf mulch from the edge of the forest, which he carefully distributed around the base of each plant.. He soaked the ground again, bucket after bucket after bucket, played an almost sad little tune on his flute, said goodbye, and set out to civilization again.. (or sillyvization as he'd taken to calling it)..

8 days he was gone for.. When he returned his garden looked very very sad.. Nearly everything had died, all that remained were a handful of tomato plants, 3 passion fruit vines, 1 persimmon, 2 pawpaw, one mango and one extremely sad looking durian… (how even they had managed to survive at all is really itself quite surprising.. Perhaps they'd just hung in there, waiting for Jeremy to return).. Jeremy felt almost heart broken.. It had been so hard for him to go back into the city, the greyness seemed overpowering, the smell of the city was quite nauseating, and all the people rushing back and forth had really given him quite a headache..

But he had certainly not returned empty handed.. From the edge of the forest, he'd dragged back an old termite hollowed branch, and in his backpack he carried numerous packets of new vegetable and fruit seeds. He set about planting and mulching and watering and playing his flute and dancing his little jig with even more vigor than he'd managed before.. and from the hollowed out branch he fashioned himself a didgeridoo. It was not an easy task, but when he'd finished he found playing it really came quite natural to him..

His days where indeed very full. He really had so much watering to do, but things grew slowly.. Small tomatoes from his first tomato plants where the first thing that appeared to eat, and Jeremy sat down and ate a plate of them chewing them real slowly, and savoring every last bit of them.. Next he ate radishes, and green leaves from the rocket he'd sown…

After he'd been out there for a year, the passion fruit vines had nearly grown around the front of his cave, and small green fruit where beginning to form. Some of the Pawpaw had already set fruit, and Jeremy watched daily as they grew, waiting patiently for their skins to chang colour.. The durian was about 1 foot high and looking quite healthy and several others where growing about it too..

Jeremy was quite proud of his little garden, but also quite tired going back and forth to the cave for water all the time.. and yes.. he was a little lonely too, but he'd vowed not to return to civilization again at least until his garden could care for itself in some fashion. At least he had the bees to listen to now, and several colourful types of birds occasionally flew into the valley.

2 years passed, and Jeremy had persimmons growing, durian, mango, green sapote, yellow sapote, white sapote, sapodilla, avocado, nectarine, peach, apple, pear, passion fruit, kiwi fruit, abiu, star apples.. not to mention all the small annual things he had growing that he was already living off of.. His garden grew and grew.. And he had taken to calling it his little fruit tree jungle, but he was becoming increasingly more tired of spending his days watering..

Now, it happened one day, that 2 little clouds were on their way across the sky to water the forest, when one of them heard something from off in the distance.. An enchanting sound that the wind carried briefly to them.. "What's that?" it said to its friend.. "hmm.. sounds like music" .. Together they both looked across the land to see where it could have come from.. and there, way off on the horizon, they noticed a small patch of green in a valley in the middle of the small desert.. Now, clouds as you no doubt already know, don't normally bother raining where nothing grows.. what's the point? They think.. but curiosity got the better of these 2 little clouds, and off they scurried across the sky, billowing and playfully shape shifting on their way, until they where directly above Jeremy's little fruit tree jungle garden.. Jeremy had seen the clouds coming, and had started playing his flute extra joyfully, and dancing his little jig.. The clouds where most impressed, and applauded by ringing big drops of water out, down into the little valley.. Jeremy was ecstatic.. he took his didge, and played that too.. this was the first time it had rained since he had been there, and it meant that at least for once, he would be able to take a break from watering everything himself..

As suddenly as they'd appeared, the clouds left to continue on toward the forest, and to tell their friends of the hidden green garden in the desert valley…

Now, once the clouds had discovered the place they would occasionally come back to listen to Jeremy play his flute, and to admire the greenness. And as the garden grew, their visits became more and more frequent, and would always end with a little shower while Jeremy danced his jig and made beautiful music with his flute..

At the end of his 3rd year there, he left once more to return for more supplies.. This time he was gone for 3 weeks. When he finally returned, he looked worn out.. completely exhausted actually.. The city had been more than he could handle.. But he smiled to see his garden again, and was happy to see that everything had survived despite his absence.. He had with him more new fruit seeds, and 2 sprouting coconuts which he planted near the base of the valley next to the old dried up stream bed..

Another year passed, and now he had dates, rambutans, carob, lychee, jackfruit, chempadek, angkola, star fruit, guavas, bananas and figs growing, as well as all the rest, and as well as all the little berry bushes he'd planted along the top ridge of the valley.. Black current, red current, gooseberry, raspberry, blueberry, mulberry and cloudberry.. plus more..

His little valley was really growing well now, and one morning, Jeremy noticed a big black granddaddy cloud off on the horizon, and it appeared to be coming closer! Quickly he ran to his cave to fetch his didge and flute, and immediately he began playing as he had never played before..

The big black cloud had been wondering why occasionally a little white cloud or 2 didn't turn up for work, raining on the forest, and having heard rumours of a "fruit tree jungle" in the middle of the desert, decided to come and check it out for himself.. Off it trundled, shooting little bolts of lightening out and about in every direction, but holding itself back from raining until it reached the fruit tree jungle valley.. There it listened to Jeremy's music, and watched his beautiful little dance.. And with a big sigh of contentment, let out it's first few droplets of water..

Suddenly, there was no holding the cloud back anymore.. it opened itself fully, and poured torrentially with rain, thunder clapping applaud occasionally, and doing lots of cloud to cloud lightening to show its pleasure toward Jeremy's music…

Well.. it rained and rained the whole day long, so much so, that a strange thing happened.. Water trickled down the hillsides gathering together into bigger and bigger rivulets, until at last, the old stream bed at the bottom of the valley filled up again, and the stream flowed through the valley just as it may well once have done thousands of years previously.

From that day on, the clouds would come passed at least twice a week, and Jeremy's fruit tree jungle looked greener and more splendid with each passing day. Fruit were growing already on many of the trees, and the jungle already flowed over into the neighboring valleys..

One day, as Jeremy sat playing in his garden, watching all the insects that had found a new home there, and occasionally stopping to listen to the sweet bird song that had become a regular part of his mornings, he suddenly noticed a small wallaby watching him.. Shyly it approached, and hopped closer to Jeremy, and Jeremy played a sweet little tune, just for the wallaby..

Over the next weeks, Jeremy and the wallaby became good friends, and would often share a bowl of fruit together. But Jeremy had been living out there for over 10 years now, and during that time, apart from his 2 brief trips back into civilization, he had not seen another human being, and he almost felt like he might be forgetting how to talk. So as you might imagine, at times, he actually really felt more than a little lonely..

When the first jelly coconuts arrived, he climbed up and broke one off.. and under the palms, next to the little stream he sat and meditated in silence before starting to eat.. It was a meditation that seemed to last forever, and although he didn't quite know what was happening, he knew something very big was afoot..

After an endless amount of time, he felt a soft pressure on his lips, and a very sweet smell seemed to caress him.. His eyes filled with tears and he opened them as slowly as he possibly could..

In front of him there sat a young lady.. healthy and so kind looking.. They smiled at each other in silence.. "Coconut?", Jeremy asked, and offered her the split jelly coconut.. and the tears streamed down both their faces.

If you'd like to know who she was.. then.. that's another story..