The Portal To Anywhere

I wasn’t wearing the right shoes

For a walk in the forest

But I wanted to go someplace

Away from there

Anywhere

And I knew these woods

Since I was three

When we lived in the green house

With the backyard that opened to the trees

My shiny shoes squeaked over the broken twigs

And scuffed on stones

Until I found our spot

Mine and Carly’s

The one where we had built the portal to anywhere

A thing no one had done before

That only she and I could make again

It had taken us to the edge of the universe

And under the ocean for a ride on the back of a kraken

And to a robot’s house in the middle of a cloud

And didn’t that mean something special?

Something secret?

Something you should never ever ever tell anyone else?

Didn’t it?

Well, I walked all the way here

In my new black shoes

That were not for walking in the woods at all

And I piled the stones

Large ones to small ones going in a spiral

I made a pattern of the light and dark ones

And the rough and smooth ones

Then I piled the twigs on top

Like we used to

Weaving them into each other

Like a nest

And I sat in the middle and squeezed my eyes shut

So hard that tears ran down my cheeks

And I wished

And when I opened my eyes

Nothing had happened

So I tried again

And again

Until the day grew cold

But the portal never opened

It wasn’t possible without Carly

It needed both of us

So I climbed out

It was a long way home

And I had forgotten my jacket

But the air crackled

The hair on my arms stood on end

And when I looked back

The portal had opened

Anyway