by Adelle Holmes

Created on: August 03, 2009

Once upon a summertime there sat a lonely girl in the corner of a room with her nose buried almost completely in a book. She had read this book many times, the cover itself was starting to fray. It told the magnificent story of a prince, a unicorn, and several other fantastic creatures that she wouldn't have ever dreamed of on her own.

Outside a storm was brewing. The wind whistled to the clouds asking for a sprinkling of rain. More than a sprinkling, the clouds whispered back, we'll make it pour rain!And they did. The thunder and lightening obeyed the cloud's harsh command, bringing noise to this silent world.

The lonely girl held her book tighter. She had reason to believe that this book would take her away from all the monsters of the dark night. All of the thunder and wind would disappear along with those creepy-crawly spiders, and the rain that caused her so much grief in these never-ending summer nights. She opened the book to her favorite chapter, and read on.

However with all the wind, thunder, lightning, and rain crashing outside of her room, the girl found it extremely hard to read. She wanted to retreat far, far away into other worlds. Wasn't there supposed to be a prince to rescue her? He would send these monsters away. He'd make the sunshine reappear.

A thought entered the girl's mind; since her prince would never come to her aid, she realized she would have to save herself. The girl had stupidly sat near the window for some light to read since the power had gone out, but the window was beginning to scare her. Instead she settled herself next to a bookcase and strained her eyes to read. She tried to forget the storm that was happening outside. "The prince rode away on his white horse passing several pink flowers that almost smiled up at him as he escaped..."

Light shot through the almost black room, light that was coming from behind the bookcase. The girl was both curious and frightened at the same time; could there be a secret passage behind that bookcase? She was wrong. As she pushed the bookcase aside with all the strength she could muster, the girl saw a different world unfurl in front of her eyes. There was a unicorn grazing on the green grass. There! Over there! Weren't those the very pink flowers she was just reading about moments ago? They were! The girl skipped about in the bright meadow, so happy that the storm was behind her; so glad that she had a found a way to escape the monsters of her mind. Was that a fairy she just spotted? It waved and winked at her, beckoning her to come closer, the fairy would show the girl mermaids. Mermaids...Could she witness it all? Right here? All of the fantastic creatures she'd read about so often in her books...could they come alive? Right now?

It was as if someone turned out a light. Everything was gone. Everything retreated into the imagination from whence it came. The forlorn girl now sat next to the bookcase again. She was lonely, scared, and wishing that she could jump into the book she clutched in her hands. Imagination, she thought, can help you picture the possibilities but it can't take you there for real. And the storm raged on.

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