Free The Story Begins by Modou Fye Page B

had been invited; enjoying pretend afternoon tea was one of her favorite things to do with Cassandra.
    “Would you care for some tea?” she asked lovingly.
    “How very kind of you. I’d absolutely love some,” replied Cassandra. They giggled. Sitting at the table Lydia’s father had built for her and pretending to sip tea, they discussed the difficulty they were having getting their dolls’ hair just right.
    “I’ve tried everything but just can’t figure out what to do with Tina’s hair,” Cassandra complained of one of her dolls.
    “Maybe a little color and then braid it,” suggested Lydia.
    “Okay. And then we can do the same with Kimberly’s.”
    Just then Cassandra’s mom called out from the window above. “Sweetie, would you please come up and give Mommy a hand with getting dinner ready?”
    “I have to go,” Cassandra rued. “I have to make sure that Mom doesn’t send Dad and me to the hospital,” she joked about her mom, who was not much of a cook. “But same time, same place tonight, okay?” she said, picking up her favorite doll and leaving the rest there.
    “Okay, I’ll be there,” Lydia assured her. “Bye.”
    “Bye.”
    They couldn’t even begin to imagine what their world would have been like had they not had their windows.
    *
    LATER THAT NIGHT: “Heeeeeeellooooooo!” said a familiar voice.
    Lydia could scarcely contain herself and jumped out of bed, looking around for him. It had been over a year since last he visited. Lydia loved him. He meant everything to her. His was the presence of love, caring, peace, happiness, and all that was good. It was the presence of the one who helped her get through a lot: helped her cope when her parents fought; when kids, jealous of her kind and loving nature and the grace about her, teased her; and even punished those who got a little too mean.
    Though she no longer asked, she did still continue to wonder if he’d ever become human. She wondered because she wanted to be with him always, just as her mommy and daddy were together. In jest he had once asked her as a younger child if she’d marry him when she was old enough, to which she had said no. When he had asked why, she’d simply said, “I dunno.” Until he had stopped visiting, she hadn’t realized just how fond she had grown of him. She loved to be around him not because he took her to places even science fiction writers couldn’t even begin to imagine but because of how sweet, kind, gentle and loving he was.
    “Where are you?” she asked excitedly.
    “Right here!” he answered as the whitish amorphous matter that suddenly appeared before her slowly took on a form her cognition could grasp.
    His glow seemed to be even more radiant and beautiful than when last she had seen him. Oh, how I wish I could marry you, she thought, thinking back to when he had asked her as a younger child. She understood now that he meant it in jest then but wished that he would ask her again now and actually mean it this time. When she realized her thoughts, she blushed and brushed them away.
    He smiled.
    She wondered if he knew what she had been thinking; she couldn’t be sure as, despite all the power and magic that was his being, he had never given her any indication that he could read her mind. Though she was now tempted to ask, she chose not to. She didn’t want the answer to be one that would embarrass her. She suspected that she already knew the answer; a being who could simply think the universe into oblivion, yes, of course, he could read her mind; she just did not want to admit it to herself.
    “I’ve missed you so much!” she said, unaware of how loud her excitement had made her, especially at 11:00 in the night when her parents were already sleeping.
    Waking anyone up would not have been a concern though, for given the nature of his being, the awesome power that he commanded, in his presence the lightest of sleepers would have fallen into the deepest of slumbers if he so chose.
    “Why