The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad

In the blackness of the cave Sinbad hears the hiss of serpents outside and for a moment the boy experiences, with intense lucidity, a double world:  he is in the black cave, in the Valley of Diamonds, and at the same time he feels his arm pressing against the fuzzy blue blanket and smells the smoking hot dogs and the river. The great mountains soar, waves from the speedboat lap the sand, diamonds glisten, the sun burns down on the backs of his legs, the serpents hiss outside the cave, a pine cone the size of a valley diamond lies on the blanket beside his mother's straw beach bag and her white rubber bathing cap.  He would like to prolong this moment, when the two worlds are held in harmony, he would like this moment to last forever.

Steven Millhauser