Daydream Believer

xlvi. jungle gyms and imaginary islands

xlvi. jungle gyms and imaginary islands

"Time for recess!" our teacher said.

I still loved everything about recess. Justin always said that outdoor recess was useless and it was more fun to play inside, but I disagreed. There was just something really fun about playing outside.

I met Justin and Aaron outside. They were sitting on top of the jungle gym. The jungle gym was their new favorite place because they could climb on top of it and the little kids couldn't. I was short though, so I couldn't climb up either. Aaron always had to pull me up to the top. I still liked the swings better than the jungle gym, but we had come up with this awesome game that we played on the jungle gym.

We called it the Island Game, because we couldn't think of anything better. In the game, we were all stranded on an island. I was a good witch, and I helped Aaron and Justin with my magic. Justin was a scientist, and he invented things to help us survive. Aaron was just some boy who got stranded on the island with us. He didn't want to make up a story. The other kids were sharks and they were trying to invade our island. We were always trying to get rid of them.

Aaron pulled me up onto the jungle gym. "Let's play," he said.

"Okay," I said. I grabbed a stick and cast a spell with it. "Here! I made a bridge for us so we can get some food!"

"But what about the sharks?" Aaron asked.

"That's the point of a bridge!" I said. "We can walk over the sharks."

"Okay," Aaron said. We all jumped off the jungle gym, walked across the playground, and found a patch of dandelions.

"I have a machine that turns dandelions into food!" Justin shouted. "So gather some dandelions for me!"

Aaron and I started picking dandelions. Then, we gave the dandelions to Justin. He tore them up and mushed them back together. It wasn't really food, so we didn't eat it, obviously. That would be gross.

We climbed back onto our little island. Now we had to get rid of the sharks. "I built a trap for the sharks," Justin said. He took out a soccer ball and threw it into the soccer game that was already going. The other kids looked at us, confused. "There, we got some."

"Yay!" Aaron said.

The whistle blew. Recess was over. We climbed down from the jungle gym. "But we didn't get all of the sharks!" I said.

"We were close," Justin said.

"Maybe next time," I said.

"Yep," Justin said. "Maybe next time."