Adara's POV
Mommy always told me not to go to the forest alone. Usually I'd listen to her. Today, though, she made me mad. She told me I had to stop playing with the boys at school. I had to be a girl and play with all the other girls. I can't help it if dolls aren't interesting, trucks are way better. So, today, I'm going to the forest alone. Where no one can find me or tell me to stop being me.
I am at the line where the forest starts, at the end of the cul-de-sac past the field behind our neighbour's house. I'm going to do it. I'm going in there. I step into the forest and make my way to where Mommy takes me on picnics. To happy days, when I was allowed to play with the boys and their trucks.
It's been a long time and I'm still walking. I look around and realize that I don't know where I am. I'm not mad at mom anymore, but while I was mad, I got lost in the forest. I had no way to get out. I sit down on a log, hoping that Daddy will come find me. Daddy with his truck. I haven't seen him in a year. Last time I saw him, he was wearing a green-brown suit and he told me he was going away. He told me he'd come back. Why isn't he back?
I sit in the forest for hours, waiting for Daddy. I wonder why he hasn't come back yet. I hear a crunching in the trees in front of me. I look up to see a lady, tall and skinny, and she tells me that she'll take me to my Daddy. She knows where he is. She picks me up and tells me that everything will be okay. She has a very comforting voice. I yawn, realizing how tired I am, and fall asleep on her shoulder. I'll never see Mommy or Daddy again.
I wake up suddenly, sitting bolt upright in bed, feeling the crack as my head hits the bed above it. Arabella woke up at my clumsy wake-up call and fell out of bed, landing flat on her stomach. She picks up her head and looks at me. She sees me, holding my head, and realizes what woke her up. We hold each other's gazes for a moment, me blinking back tears at how hard I'd hit my head, and start laughing.
After we recover from our laughing fit, Arabella looks at me. "So," she begins, "another nightmare?"
"Yeah. Another nightmare."
"Man, these just keep coming, don't they?"
"Yeah. I don't really know how to stop them." By now, she's sitting on my bed, looking at me worriedly. It's kind of hard to take her seriously when she's wearing a pink Mickey Mouse nightshirt. I wondered how a self-respecting nineteen-year-old could take her own self seriously in a Mickey Mouse nightshirt.
"That's terrible. What was this one about? The same thing?"
"Yeah," I said, still wincing from the impact and scooting up on my bed, "The same one. Gosh, I hate that." I said as the bell tolled signaling breakfast.
"BREAKFAST!" Ma'ama yelled down the hall, as if everyone from here to Timbuktu were deaf and couldn't hear the bell ringing.
"I guess we'd better get up," I told Arabella, who still looked concerned.
"I guess, but we aren't dropping this," she said, walking away, "so don't think you'll get off that easy." At this point, she turned around to point at me. "You know you won't."
"Yeah," No. Arabella always forgets to talk about it later.
I heaved myself out of bed, nonplussed about my aching head, and streched, knowing that it was going to be a long day.
I ever-so-sluggishly made my way to the breakfast table, thinking about my dream. It was stupid, because Ma'ama was the only mother I'd ever had, and I knew that, so why was I dreaming something different? Who was the memory of a woman in my dreams?
