Every time Molly closed her eyes, she saw a different world.  Behind her eyelids, she created a safe place for herself.  Everything was comforting to the touch and pleasing on the eye.  Soft colors of baby blues painted the skies as white ribbon clouds curled around every twinkling star—a place where every night was day and every day was a dream.

Sometimes there were people planting new things like rainbow tulips to change the mood inside Molly’s mind or blowing seeds of thoughts into the wind.  Thoughts that Molly would think about like, “It will all be okay” and “You could come here any time.”

Molly would cradle these soothing thoughts and keep her world within her clean.  Throughout the day, when Molly felt sad at school, she would peek into her hiding spot just by closing her eyes.

“Tonight, we will all be together,” she whispered to herself as she sat and waited for the bell to ring.

Molly had lost her parents a few years ago when she was only ten and came to live with her Aunt Glenda and Uncle Nick in Wisconsin.  They did not have any children and were overjoyed to have her stay with them. 

New Year’s Eve was when tragedy struck.  Her parents were coming home from a party and were hit by a drunk driver.  Molly’s mom and dad died instantly.

“Just wait ‘til you see,” she whispered again.

Molly was excited she created more things in her little world.  Everyone danced in the streets happily.  Everything was perfect in Molly’s eyes, day or night.  No one would ever be scared or sad anymore.

But in reality Aunt Glenda and Uncle Nick worried about Molly.  She hadn’t had any friends since the move two years back and now seemed to be slipping with her grades.  Molly’s daydreaming had been affecting her work at school, so Aunt Glenda and Uncle Nick arranged for a tutor.  A close neighbor of Aunt Glenda offered for her son Matt to help.  He was two years older and in honors and had agreed it would be okay.

Once Molly got home from school, she heard laughing in the living room and wondered who’d come to visit.  After she slipped her coat and boots off, she walked into the room.

“Oh, hello Molly, glad to see your home.” Aunt Glenda said, sipping on her cup of coffee.  “You remember Mrs. Johnson don’t you?”

“Yes, nice to see you,” Molly politely responded.

“And this is her son Matt,” Aunt Glenda pointed to a tall kid with braces.

Molly looked for a moment and giggled, “I’m supposed to get braces in the spring.”

“Yeah, I can’t wait to get ‘em off,” Matt said with a shy grin.

“Matt is here to help you with your schoolwork,” Aunt Glenda said firmly. 

Molly then looked down as if to cry, “I don’t need help, I’ll be fine.”

“It’s just to get better,” Aunt Glenda replied, getting up off her chair to console Molly.

“Yeah, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Matt piped in.  “Just to get better.”

“I guess,” Molly muttered.

“Good, we’ll start tomorrow then,” he said with a steady voice.

Morning came and Molly awoke to see the snow falling.  She ran to the window and stared in amazement at the huge white flakes floating down.  It was like the angels were having a pillow fight as feather-like snow drifted out from heaven.

She could hear Matt downstairs already for their first lesson. 

After Molly got dressed, she went downstairs and greeted Matt, “Wow, you got here fast.”

“Well, I only live next door remember,” he answered.

“Haha…that’s right.” Molly snickered.  “So what do we study first?”

“A snowball fight!” he pointed outside, eyeing the mountains of snow.

“What?”  Molly gave him a puzzled look.

“Yeah, we can’t let the day go by without a snowball fight…not when the snow is perfect for packing.”

“Really?”  Molly excitedly asked.

“Sure, why not,” Matt said with his sparkling silver smile. “We could always study later.”

“Okay then.”

Once Molly bundled up and Matt put his jacket back on, they headed outside and into the snow.  Laughing and giggling, they chased each other around, throwing snowballs.  Molly’s face lit up and gleamed a cherry red from the brisk wind.  Matt couldn’t stop laughing as Molly kept falling in the snow.

“Hey, I wanna show you something.” Matt said as a heated breath of smoke came from his mouth.  “But you have to close your eyes.”

“Okay,” Molly figured that wouldn’t be hard at all since she felt safe in her little world.  Plus she started feeling safe around Matt too, so she agreed.

Matt covered her eyes with his gloved hands and guided her slowly down the hill.  “Just a minute more.”

Molly could hear the branches cracking underneath her boots and feel it getting cooler.  “Are we there yet?”

“Okay…” Matt stood Molly in front of him and took his hands off her eyes.  “Now open!”


“WOW…it’s beautiful,” Molly was taken aback by the scene.  The lake near their home had frozen over as the tree branches dripped with icicles.  The snow remained untouched, blanketing across the open field.

She couldn’t believe it.  It was perfect.  It reminded her of her world.

“Thank you so much Matt!”

“For what?”

“For opening my eyes,” Molly said.