The Tree Line

For Belle's Challenge (Entry No. 1):

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It was the most wonderful night of sleep that you can remember in a long time...and you can see the sunlight dabbling and dancing in your room.

The bed is a little small, and that is a surprise. But you are much smaller, too. So small. And you have on a pair of pyjamas that you have not worn in ages.

It is early. And you remember something; something that comes back to you deep in your thoughts: it is a Saturday, maybe spring. That's why it's so quiet.

It is a Saturday, and your parents are in bed trying to enjoy the weekend after a long week of work. You know not to disturb them as you walk downstairs.

Everything is as you remember it: the small table in the kitchen; the bigger one in the front room with the sofa, coffee table and the TV.

Cartoon time! You know that you have to lower the volume first before you switch it on. There is no remote...yet, but you admit to yourself that you miss walking to the TV.

So many of these shows are silly, but they were a part of your childhood, as was the bowl of cereal that your mother insisted you eat (corn flakes or Rice Krispies).

You only take an hour-and-a-half with the shows. Now that you are back, you have something else on your mind; something that your family knows little about; something they may not be happy about.

You dress quickly after cleaning up after breakfast. Your parents are still asleep as you tiptoe downstairs, use the door to the backyard and walk across to the gate leading to the park.

You are not interested in the jungle gym or the swing set with the large tires that you loved to stand on as you went higher and higher. You are looking beyond them.

The fence cannot keep you out. It is easy to climb and there are plenty of holes for the kids who want to hide out in the forest or get away from the neighbourhood.

You look back one more time as you step into a gap in the chain link. If there is one memory that you want to relive, it is this one.

There are all those trees you climbed, and the ones you wanted to climb. The fort you built with friends; the path to school they hated you for knowing.

You are smiling so hard it hurts. You are now back to your childhood forty years ago and nothing could ruin this.

The tree line is smiling down on you. You smile back.

The path is right in front of you and you take the first step.

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