Imagination

When I was a little child, I used to wonder off into a place like no other.

Some children have an invisible friend. I had an invisible world. I would go there when I got upset, or when I was simply in need to go there. But my world was not invisible, not to me.

I called it Andrea Land.

I was the beautiful child princess with her long blond hair, bright brown eyes and her pink frilly dress. I lived in a big castle, in the middle of the three turrets. The roofs of the turrets were painted maroon and the bricks were grey -the shade of a heavy cloud about to rain, but slightly lighter. It was always bright with a rainbow lighting the sky over the castle.

I had a pet dragon which was almost as big as the castle. My dragon was purple in color and was very gentle. The dragon's name was Spot. I used to play fetch with a Frisbee with her.

Andrea Land, if that is where I go to now, has changed. The bright sky is full of clouds. There is no rainbow, no dragon. Just the beautiful princess, older, her hair now a golden brown, sitting looking out over the dry ground from her castle, which now has worn, falling out bricks. The wonderful meadows have turned to a desolate place, the ground is very light brown and covered with rocks, it never rains here so no flowers grow.

The fact that this place I now go to is so dark doesn't bother me. I can leave whenever I want.

My creations run about on the land.

I sometimes walk to the edge of the land; my creations don't disturb me, but instead freeze when I come near them. I can make them vanish if I so wish. The princess in this land can only leave the castle when I am there in mind. She is frozen like a statue until I decide to join her. I control my imagination; I don't let it control me. I walk to the edge of the land and focus.

There is a massive wooden door which creaks open, a bright light shines through. Sometimes, as I walk the land, I will create a new creation, or one, or two. If this door is open it means the new creation belongs in the light, it runs through and I follow. The door shuts behind me. The princess smiles, she is in her childhood land, but still older and her other creations roam about the meadow. Spot nudges me with her nose and drops the Frisbee. I throw it. This princess will admire her newest creation, perfecting it until she walks to the castle and glides up the stairs before she sits on the window ledge, smiling. She may sit there for hours, or days even, before she freezes.

Then I will get pulled back into reality.

In reality, I am the child princess but older, with different hair, like the older. I don't have a dragon, but two puppies which do just as well. The castle is no longer needed, as I don't need guarding anymore.

I wonder if I knew then that I would be a writer. A talented writer, people tell me, or if my mind knew what it would do, and therefore created Andrea Land in order to prepare me for it.

I wrote this for my mother. So she, you and whoever you may share this with can hopefully have an Andrea Land of your own until you no longer need the castle.