When you miss me…

I miss you too!

But you know what I do?

In my mind, I can see you.

Think about me, while I think about you…

And our times apart turn into times we spend together!

When you miss me, look at my picture.

Imagine me there!

Read the letters I’ve written you.

Read them over until you can hear my voice.

Imagine us walking to the park,

swimming in the pool,

talking in the mornings,

making breakfast in the kitchen,

popping popcorn for a scary movie,

and playing hide and seek

around the house.

Just close your eyes

And I am there!

It’s never too long

Before we are together again…

As I closed the book after the last page, I remembered reading it for the first time. The book was so much more than words to me. I was watching Mikayla with her father and learning about the things they used to do together. They seemed very close, which ironically is the exact opposite of what the book was about. It was about when they were separated, but those are the kinds of games my mind plays on me.

When I thought about my relationship with Gilmer, it was nothing like that. He didn’t write me letters. We didn’t have talks in the morning while we made breakfast. We didn’t go on walks or play hide and seek. When I thought back on my life with Gilmer, he was always up to something, like a little boy getting into everything.

Maggie was like his mother at times, the way she warned him about danger and taught him about things he didn’t know. She tried to talk sense into him, and for the most part, he understood. But I could tell when he didn’t get her at all. He had a look of total cluelessness, and I wondered sometimes if she picked up on that herself.

That was my life with Maggie and Gilmer. They were two fascinating people, each with their own quirks. But the relationship Mikayla had with her father? He was more of a guide with a calm voice. Sometimes, he even talked in a whisper. That’s how I imagined him to be.

“Hey,” a voice called to me.

When I looked around, I realized that I was still in my cubbyhole. How long have I been here?

“Hey, Kissy,” I heard the voice call again.

“Kissy?” I asked no one in particular. “Who is calling me, Kissy?”

So, I climbed across the small floor to the tiny door and popped my head outside to see. There wasn’t anyone in my room. This was confusing me.

When I crawled through the door, I stood up, and that’s when I saw her. Mikayla was in the yard. I could see her through the window.

When she saw me, she waved, “There you are. Come on.”

Come on, I thought. Where does she want to go?

“Come on down and I’ll tell you,” she answered.

That threw me back a bit. I lifted the window and yelled down, “You heard what I was thinking?”

“You were thinking so loud,” she answered. “Everyone could hear what you were thinking.”

“How do you think loud?” I asked.

Mikayla thought, “When people around you can hear what you’re thinking, I’d say that’s loud.”

“Fair enough,” I said. Then, I looked around the yard. Mikayla was the only one there. “Who is everyone?”

She scratched her head, “What’s with all the questions? Everyone is whoever isn’t you and me.”

“But I don’t see anyone,” I said.

“Oh,” she understood. “Everyone is here. Trust me. They’re around. Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t here.”

“Who is everyone?” I asked.

She pointed at me as she stomped her foot, “Are you trying to dillydally? Because I know dillydallying and it looks an awful lot like that’s what you’re doing right now.”

I had nothing to say to that. But I didn’t know what she wanted, where she wanted to go, or who was coming with us. I thought those were perfectly good questions to ask.

“Come on already,” she yelled up once more. “Just get down here and I’ll explain as we go.”

“Good enough,” I said. Then, I looked at my bedroom door for a moment. It would be so much easier to go down the steps and out the back door. But would it be as fun?

I climbed out the window and found the ladder right where I had left it all those years ago. It guided my feet to the ground that wasn’t that far below. I had climbed rocks, and hills, and trees. I had earned every single one of the scuffs on my knees. Climbing down from my bedroom window was nothing but a breeze.

“It’s about time,” Mikayla said with excitement in her voice.

I took the view of her in for a moment. She looked back at me with wonder, but she let me have this little bit of time for myself. I hadn’t seen her in so long.

“If you’re going to want a hug,” she began. “You might want to get it over with now because we have to go.”

I thought about it for a moment, and just as she thought she was in the clear, I wrapped my arms around her so hard she could barely breathe. She patted me on the back with a soft touch. Then, she patted me on the back again, a little harder this time.

“Okay. Okay. I get,” I said as I pulled away.

“Good. Now that you have all that out of your system, we really have to go,” she said as she started walking away.

I started running after her, but I couldn’t keep my mouth from saying things, “Why are we in such a hurry? Where are we going?”

“You do love asking questions,” she said as she looked around.

When I looked up to see, we were deep in the woods. When I looked back, I could no longer see the house. It was at that minute that I had to realize I had no idea where I was or what direction to go. By the look on Mikayla’s face, neither did she.

Taking one step after another, she continued moving forward as if she knew the way. This was sheer ridiculousness, and it was time for me to get some answers. I simply didn’t like doing things this way. Going without knowing. Doing without a plan. How did anyone ever get anything done this way?

“Okay,” she stopped and looked me square in the eyes. “You’re thinking way too loud.”

“At least, tell me where we’re going,” I said.

“Fair enough,” she replied. “We’re going to find it.”

“Find what?” I asked.

“That’s a good question,” she said as she nodded. “We don’t know yet.”

“Well, how will we know when we find it?” I asked.

“That’s a good question,” she repeated. “We don’t know that either.”

That’s when we both heard a voice coming from the trees, “You’ll know when you find it.”

I turned to look and recognized him immediately after he moved out of the shadows, “You’re the knight from the road.”

“I am,” he said as he nodded.

He sat on top of his tall horse in full body armor made of shiny metal. A red cape flowed behind him, and he had a long lance in his hand. He also had a sword attached to his waist.

“Do you know where it is?” Mikayla asked.

“I know which way to go,” he answered, and with that, his horse turned so that he could walk beside us.

The horse was majestic as it gracefully cleared the trees and stole glances at me. His feet walked lightly like a ballerina dancing with no sound. The branches and leaves didn’t crunch beneath his steps. He looked huge but had mastered the art of tiptoeing through the woods. It was impressive.

“Let me ride up a way and I’ll spy the trail,” the knight said before galloping ahead.

I watched until he disappeared into the distance. That’s when Mikayla stopped and looked at me, a thought brewing in her head, “I think I know a shortcut.”

“If you don’t know where we’re going, how do you know how to get there?” was a question that seemed perfectly reasonable to me.

But she was already walking a small path that took us a different way. It brought us out into an open field, which felt good for a moment. The mysterious woods were behind us, and we were in an open field where we could see the light. Everything felt right.

That is, until we saw a band of knights. They were gathered in confusion like a mob of turkeys looking for a king. When one spotted us, he trotted over and looked down as if we were so hard to see from his highness’s towering seat.

“I don’t think you belong here,” he said without any question.

“Well, where do you think we belong?” Mikayla asked.

“Anywhere but here,” was the answer. Then, he continued, “It’s too dangerous for the two of you. The word is, there’s a treasure around here, which means they’ll all be coming to find it.”

Mikayla’s face lit up with surprise, “Who?”

“Them,” the knight answered.

 “Who are they?” I asked, the vague answers starting to annoy me.

“All of them,” he answered, an answer not any better than any other.

“This is going to be fascinating,” Mikayla said.

I had no idea what she was so excited about. But I knew what I wanted to ask, “Do you know where our knight went? He slipped away, and we ended up here.”

The knight looked down and stared at me for an uncomfortable moment. He held the silence, the kind that begged anyone to break it. Then, as if his voice had gotten lower somehow, he finally spoke, “He’ll go where your courage goes. That’s where you’ll always find him.”

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