'In the old days at home the Neverland had always begun to look a little dark and threatening by bedtime. Then unexplored patches arose in it and spread, black shadows moved about in them, the roar of the beasts of prey was quite different now, and...
i am dreaming of those diamond mines which flickered in my mind's eye, i laugh tenderly, suddenly seeing we drank the same drink, ten days apart (only i stole the glass.)
i am collecting up my childhood in rings and fairy lights -- i remember how safe i was under the mesh of the mosquito net, dozing in those boiling summers, building dams and catching salamanders --
soaking in lemonade and light lavender, sitting with Scrumpy in the long grass and Donkey leaning over into the vegetable garden; his dark nose stained pink by strawberries.
how we would feast on everything that was good: sun yellowed plums and sweet raspberries, pink and red currants which sparkled like watery gems in the sunlight --
i curled my rosy limbs on the patio beneath those ruby roses which climbed the granite; eyes level with the animals in their world -- (which was mine, it was mine --)
and i thought that rose had died -- but it came back to life -- when you and i slept with the windows open, and i could hear the river sparkling long into the night, just like when i was a kid.
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