Holly Blank

Gerontology of Flight

There weren't always dragons in the valley. In fact, there didn’t use to be many things there. No one even visited there, thanks to the multitudes of mosquitos that bred in the shade of the trees where no sun reached inside. There weren’t even a lot of animals that called it home. I only knew of it as a hiding spot, away from my step-father that criticized my entire existence and neglected everything outside of his arms’ reach of his recliner. Then, one day, while I was walking snuggled inside my hooded sweatshirt cocoon and pretending to be invisible, the dragons appeared.