WAHP

The story

Inez sat by the old willow tree, sobbing, tears streaming down her paper white skin."I'm never going home again!" Inez told herself over and over again. Living at home with her father was a nightmare."I hate him and I'm never going back!" Poor Inez sobbed and sobbed until all of a sudden something strange happened. She felt the ground beneath her disappear. The ground collapsed leaving her spinning in mid air, dropping for what seemed like millions of feet per second.

Inez screamed, her arms flailing out, trying to find something, anything to grab. Lucky for Inez her dress caught her and was like a parachute. She tried closing her eyes. This couldn't be real. Could it? She looked around the hole to try to find something, but she could only see pitch black. This is not how I intended things to happen. She scowled, feeling mad and sorry for herself. After a while of falling, she stopped, hitting the ground with a small thud. Inez looked around but she couldn't see anything but black. She tried to stand up but before she managed to lift herself to her feet, she noticed a small light in the corner, moving.

"How extraordinary-" Inez dug her feet onto the wet soggy ground to make sure she was done falling. "What a mysterious light..." Inez whispered to herself. The light darted to the left then right, and grew brighter and brighter. She walked towards the light. The light was so bright that she closed her eyes. When she opened them, she found herself in a field.

Wild flowers swayed in a whirl of color all around her. Inez paused to look around, slightly confused on what just happened. "Where am I? This doesn't seem like Tennessee." She wanted to cry but at the same time she found herself strangely joyful to be in such a wonderfully beautiful place.

"Hello!" A small voice said. At first Inez thought she was crazy and just imagining things, but she answered just incase

"Who's there?" Inez replied her voice shaky.

"Over here! By the yellow flower." The voice sounded sweet, like a mother after her morning coffee. Inez had always wanted a mother to call her own, since her mother had died when she was young. Inez never met her mom and her father had been a nightmare to live with. Throwing bottles of empty whiskey, shouting things so awful, even the child welfare had run away. So, you see, the idea of a mother, someone kind who would care for her, never shout and certainly never drink, seemed like a dream.

Startled, Inez searched the grass for a yellow flower in the sea of reds, purples and pinks. Finally she found bright yellow petals. If the sun had been a flower, this would be it. Inez wanted to touch the delicate flower with pointed petals brushed together, and with brilliant red streaks spreading towards the ends, but she was scared she would squish the creature the strange voice was coming from.

"Hello? I'm by the yellow flower." Inez called out nervously glancing around. In her mind she had imagined a beautiful woman to match the sweet, motherly voice.

"Look down!"

Inez looked down only to find a small slimy snail. "Oh Dear... I thought..." She stuttered trying to find the right words.

"What were you expecting a human?" The snail chuckled.

"Well... I suppose I was." Inez blushed. Was it odd to expect a voice to be the voice of a human? Don't only humans talk? Snails don't talk! Or maybe I had just never noticed them talking before...

"You're not from here are you?" The snail said.

"And exactly where is here?"

"Oh so you are new here. Come, let me show you around." The snail started to move and Inez followed hesitantly, what can I possibly be doing? Following a talking snail. the snail continued, "You're in Ubopia. A land where everything is beautiful. Where there's vibrant flowers of all colors and kinds, and roses as red as blood, where everything has a mind of their own, even the trees! So be careful not to say the wrong things, anywhere, anytime because something is always listening. Anyways, I want to know about you. What's your name? Where are you from? How did you get here?"