The yard was sort of divided in two as it was sort of open at first – just the one willow tree that swayed so hard during storms I’d hide with Timba in the basement. She was scared too, I could tell, because her right paw would vibrate, and she made a quiet whining sound that would rise in its like notes, and then suddenly stop. She’d look at me and tilt her head. No matter how bad and loud and crazy the storm was, I would beg her and she’d lick my face. For a sec, then look around as if she could see something I couldn’t. Like monsters. Or aliens.

The sky was threatening that one day and we went back into the bad zone. That’s what we called it because dad said we weren’t allowed but that’s where all the cool stuff was. There was a weird tree there that was not too tall but it was really wild with tons of branches. Like the tree had one of those diseases like this kid at school where the arms or the branches were kinda disfigured. But like tons of them. It was fun to climb in but mom said it had ticks. I did find some on my head sometimes, or my shoulder but I don’t think it was that particular tree. She just didn’t want me climbing in it.

Beyond the tree was some woods and then a narrow creek. It looked pretty boring overall but if you lifted the rocks, sometimes you’d see crayfish. They’d get all scared and swim backwards real fast and they were tough to catch. I was scared too because those claws looked like they’d hurt.

Timba would drink the water, not a lot, but little cautious sips. Then we’d go farther into the woods even though we weren’t supposed to. And that’s when we found Candyland.

I had the game and sometimes played with my little sister, Sydney. But she would always get hungry and ask mom for candy. And she would say we were only allowed on weekends which we both knew. Then Sydney would cry so I stopped playing.

Sydney wouldn’t have liked this Candyland although Elizabeth was kinda cool. She was a pretty big elephant that let us in but she seemed sad. And lonely. Timba creeped up to her slowly and sniffed her butt, but Elizabeth ignored her. We walked around and I totally thought I’d be going home with a ton of candy and stuff, but it was all old. Moldy. It was kinda disgusting. And gross. I even saw a big pile of books smoldering inside a giant pit in the ground. It smelled disgusting. Reminded me of all those German and Nazi pictures they used to show at school.

I asked Liz (we were friends now) what happened to all the candy and she said it was banned by the caped elders. The books too. They said the sweets had too many colors so they turned everything grey. And the books had bad ideas. Dangerous. It smelled like death.

As Timba and I left, I waved to Lizzie. She looked down and told me this is what most the people want. She said the polls told the story. We tried to hurry home as it started drizzling a bit and the big storm seemed to be brewing. When I got home I kinda felt different. Like life for me suddenly changed. It was a new world and sadly, not one to look forward to.