I thought we were starting the conversation back up.
So did I.
Well, where have you been. What are you waiting for?
Um…
How about you tell us a story.
A story. Well, it just happens I have one to tell.
Perfect. I’ll sit here and be quiet. The floor is yours.
This is the story about a girl in blue…
It was dark outside with only a dim hint of day left beyond the trees in the west. The kids were sitting on chairs, on the sofa, in a circle of sorts. One of the boys had been reading a book. Now, a girl in blue sat up.
“Once upon a time,” she started.
The others turned their heads. They were looking forward to a story, but she was going to play a trick.
“Once upon a time,” she said with a smile on her face. And now that she had them, she was going to abruptly end with a quick “The End.” But before her words got out, she looked up and stopped short.
The air shimmered and shivered, and just beyond her reach a dancing pattern of cross-hatched lights appeared, seemingly tearing the air apart, opening as a zipper might unzip. She stared, dumbfounded, as the air became dark. And she heard the sound of crashing waves. The unzipping darkness grew.
She looked around the room. No one was moving. Not as if they were staring at the blackness but as if time was standing still.
She stood up and took a step toward the blackness. There was a humming sound as she got closer, and the blackness spread further. It was now as big as a door, and she could see into it. There were stars against a black night sky. There was grass lit by moonlight. There was a sea breeze blowing in her face. And from somewhere in that night she could hear waves breaking against a shore.
She looked around her again. No one in the room had moved.
She took another step toward that unzipping night. It opened further and in a moment she found herself on the grass in the moonlight under the stars with a breeze swirling around her face blowing her curls into her eyes.
The turned around. There was her chair. There was her sister sitting in the couch. There was the kitchen with someone standing at the stove. But no one was moving, and… they were getting farther away.
With a panic, she ran back. Back to her sister. Back to her chair. Back to the kitchen. It was already many steps away from where she had been standing. She ran as fast as she could.
Then in an instant she found herself not just back in the room, but back in her chair sitting where she had been sitting.
“Once upon a time,” the words has just come out of her mouth.
She jumped up. There was no blackness in front of her. No moonlit grass. No stars. No sea breeze or crashing waves.
Her sister and brother and cousin were there in front of her with surprised looks on their faces, because she had jumped out of her seat. Her sister was fidgeting in the corner of the couch. Her brother’s eyes were wide and his mouth was open in anticipation. The sound of popcorn popping was coming from the kitchen.
“Once upon a time,” she said, “the end.” And she sat back down.
There were groans from the crowd, who were expecting a real story. There was a little bit of a smile on her face for the trick she played.
Or rather she had thought it was going to be a trick. She had thought it was just going to be a quick story. But the story was in fact just beginning.