My bare feet trampled across the dry, crumbling leaves and wherever I stepped, leaf fragments leapt into the air. They shattered into pieces and swirled around my face like a small tornado, holding me tightly within its grasp. I squinted, protecting my eyes from the flying leaves. My stubby hands pawed through the fallen debris and I rolled on the ground, caught up in the surreal world that I lived in. I was a princess or maybe a fairy; in my world, anything was possible. The great wonders that I could create just with the power of my mind, the possibility was infinite.

I was content to sit for hours, suspended by the hands of my imagination, carefree, because with my parents by my side, nothing could hurt me. I could dig to China if I wanted to. And why wouldn’t one want to dig? I looked up at the trees, swaying in the wind. If I wanted to climb to the top of a tree and sit perched atop the highest branches like a bald eagle, I could. I lived in a magical kingdom, a place of intangible wonders, fictitious yet grounded firmly in reality.

One clumsy foot crushed a bumblebee. My toe erupted in pain. Tears flooded down my face, a river of salt water pouring onto the cold ground. I carefully bent down and gently lifted the bee in the palm of my hand. I lay her on the leaves and covered her with grass; my fingers, numb from the cold, brushed leaves over her. I stood up, and my sadness disappeared as quickly as it had come and I bounced along like a baby kangaroo, just learning to hop. The damp, musty smells of leaves tickled my nose. I sneezed, giggled, then plopped down in a big wet leaf pile and rolled on my back, I felt the prickle of stems against my skin. The leaves crackled and leapt off of the ground, swirling in circles, right in front of my face, entirely real, but if I looked too close, the edges of my picture became blurry, faded and unreachable. I stood up and pranced towards my house. My parent's voices called me to return to the world of reality, but I would be back.