“Jules,” I said. “Look!” My best friend looks away from the gorgeous yellow- orange tiger lily in her hand and towards where my finger is pointing. “Whoa,” she mutters, and I nod in agreement. Whoa is right. Far into the distance, past the large, tall oak and sycamore trees and the beautiful, brightly colored flowers that seem to go on for miles, is a city. A city filled with people, many people, all hustling and bustling around.
I almost don’t hear Jules in her attempt to get my attention. The deafening chirps of the beautiful blue jays surrounding us nearly blocked her voice from my blank mind. “Kellie,” she all but shouts my name. “Run!” I turn towards her at the speed of light, confused and terrified. “What,” I ask my voice panicky. “What is it?” She looks impatient, like she wants me to hurry. She points back towards the path behind us, jumping from foot to foot as though she’s going to take off running as soon as she hears the gun. I spin towards the path and my heart all but stops.
“Go,” I cry out, my voice nothing but terror. Jules was already running, but it takes me a second to get my feet to work with my brain. Despite the fact that we both run track, the large, mangy mutts behind us are faster. Jules jumps into a large oak tree with the biggest circumference I’ve ever seen on a tree. I force my legs to run just a couple of seconds longer, and then in one swift movement jump into the tree and pull myself up to where Jules is. I slowly but surely lean over the low-hanging branch below us and peer down to where the scary dogs are jumping as though they can climb into the tree themselves. I whip backwards, almost knocking Jules out of the tree in the process. “Watch it,” she whisper-yells. “Stay quiet.” I prop myself comfortably against the large trunk, and Jules and I wait, for what seems like hours but is really only a few minutes for the dogs to disperse.
“Come on,” Jules says from the bottom of the tree, irritation lining her high-pitched voice. I roll my eyes at her, but jump the remaining 6 feet or so to the bottom. I look curiously back towards the city, but Jules takes off power-walking the opposite direction. “Maybe we should go,” I call to Jules. “They might be able to, I don’t know, tell us where we are, and maybe even how to get home?” I was being sarcastic and rude, but in my defense I was also tired and confused. “No,” she screams at me. “They’ll think were insane!” I hesitate for a second, thinking that she might have a point, but in the end I hold my ground. “We don’t even know how we got here, Jules. We were walking through the woods behind my house, and suddenly we’re somewhere else. Our parents will be worried, we have to ask someone and figure out how to get home. She opens her mouth to speak, but doesn’t get the chance before she’s interrupted.
“Juliette,” I hear a whisper, but it isn’t coming from me. It’s a soft, gentle whisper. “What,” Jules growls at me. I stutter when I try to answer her. “Uh, th- that wasn’t me.” The voice pipes in. “It was me,” Juliette glances down at her shoulder, where a small monarch butterfly is sitting on it. “Juliette, I’m your fairy. When you were born, I was sent to watch over you.” Jules laughs nervously. “This is…” she hesitates. “Weird.” she finally breathes. She seems as though she wants to say more, but the butterfly interrupts her. “Listen to her,” it says. “Go to the city, they’ll be able to tell you where you are.” I feel something lightly brush my shoulder, and I glance down. My own beautiful, bright- yellow butterfly fairy has landed on my shoulder.
“Follow your instincts,” it tells me. Both of the butterflies fly away together and Jules looks at me. “We should get going, it’s probably getting late.” I nod in agreement, accepting her unspoken apology. That was one thing about being best friends; you knew what the other was trying to say without them actually having to say it. “This is like my own personal utopia,” I tell Jules. I grab her hand. “Let’s follow the beautiful, bright blue sky and see where it takes us.” Jules links her arm through mine, and together we skip off towards the sun like giggly schoolgirls.
As we near the city, I can smell freshly cut grass, mixed with the smell of a warm summer rain. I smile to myself; those are my two favorite smells of summer. Jules and I come upon a tall, shiny, yellow wooden fence surrounding the town. “It’s like Pleasantville,” Jules announces, sounding awestruck. I begin to ask Jules if she has an idea how to get around the fence and into the city, but I’m interrupted by a loud squawking. I look up, popping my neck in the process, and see a large black bird with a sword-like beak. With its rainbow colored beak and long, soft wings brushing my face with every stroke, I realize it’s a toucan. Jules and I take off running after the creature, which leads us to a gate. “An entrance,” Jules says. “Interesting.”
Just as amazed as Jules us, I quickly tug on the lock and the gate swings open. We must have come in through the back of the city, because nobody seems to be anywhere around this area. We follow the distant sound of happy chatter until we get to the middle of the city. Somebody bumps into me, and I startle out of my dream-like world and I look around me. We are surrounded by the laughable chatter of those without a care in the world, it seems like. I see a woman in a pretty white dress at a playground. She’s laughing at one of her children as they try to climb up the trunk of a large sycamore tree. “Excuse me,” I say to her. “But I’m lost. Could you tell me where I am and how to get home?” She laughs as if I’ve just told the funniest joke she’s ever heard. “Oh, my dears, I’m sorry I thought you must be joking.” I shake my head, and the woman continues. “You are wherever you want to be. There is no way back.”
