A white ball bounces down a stairway stretching to infinity Inside the ball is suspended a mechanism bearing a cube Inside the cube a forest of stones, inside the forest of stones a platform on which lives a curious man, Mr R -who spends his life pumping out, with a totally inadequate foot-pump, the water that threatens to engulf him.

Then one day a catastrophe occurs Mr R Z forgets to keep pumping The water rises But Mr R Z does not drown. Dreams can at times provide strange solutions.