“lets go on an adventure” she giggles
Standing in my doorway
Refusing to come in, wanting me to come out
She’s wearing a blue scarf around her head
Her nose it bright red like it always gets when she’s cold
She’s sniffing.

In the woods everything is grey and white and silver
We cant find the path, it’s under the snow
The trees are thin and
There are moon shadows that are thin and long like the trees
We’re telling stories.

“Me and Elias…” she says and takes a little skipping step
Ahead of me then looks back ,“We climbed a fence
Of this fancy schmancy house
And swam naked in their pool.”

Elias is her friend from wilderness camp.
I've never met him but
I've seen the portrait she drew of him
And whenever she mentions him
I see that sketchy face with small eyes and a goatee
In soft pencil lead.
Swimming naked in a pool, he looks like wet paper.

We crunch and slip across the frozen field where
We can see the sledding trail
Where once my brother crashed into a frozen hay bail,
That one of the teachers had put there, stupidly
He got a bloody lip and
That’s when I realized adults weren’t smarter than me

Around the pond we sneak up on Tim’s house
We can hear a television inside
“are you watching lost?” I ask when he comes out
“yeah i don’t think it’s a re-run.”
We leave him there

And slip up the hill where
The roots of the trees are like stairs

She drives me home
We turn the stereo on and blare “Eleanor Rigbey”
Like a lullaby
In stark contrast
to the breakneck speed of the car.