Backyard Fairy Tales

Once upon a time there was a little girl who wanted to live in New York City.  She spent her childhood winding pearls around her neck and sneaking her mother's clothes from the closet.  There was a tube of bright red lipstick hidden beneath her socks, and at night she dreamed of high heels clacking against shiny marble floors.  She tried to hide her country accent, polishing away any word that couldn't be found in the Oxford English Dictionary, and spent hours tugging at her naturally curling hair in an attempt to make it hang long as straight like the hair of the glossy girls in magazines.  She wanted the world she saw in books and on television:  glimmering skyscrapers, roaring traffic, foreign foods, never-ending bottles of deep red wine, and, most of all, to be always surrounded by a crowd.



The country was so quiet.  So lonely.  And it seemed so, so small.

Then that little girl grew up.  Although she never quite made it to New York City, she did move far, far from the country.  And it took years of being away to make her see her home.

On that day, the day she really looked at where she'd spent so many miserable years, she wondered how she'd ever been so blind.

And yet... Some things never change.  She still winds pearls around her neck, puts on her best heels, and toasts the day she'll finally see New York City.