Lily opened her eyes as if just seconds had passed. She found herself staring at a trembling candle flame. The light it emitted coated the small dome shamed room. On the ceiling was a large mural painting of swirling stars. It looked like the Van Gogh painting Ms. Honey showed them in class in one of her many large art books. However, the stars were much brighter and seemed to twinkle and move on the ceiling. The moon was different too. Instead of its orange crescent shape and warm yellow painted glow, it was a full moon, pale with purple and blue scattered within it. The light from it was a pale purple that faded into the rich blue sketches of the night sky.

After fully studying the moving mural, Lily returned her attention to the room. It was indeed cozy and small. On the other side of where Lily was, there was a round door with a small opaque window. Curious about the door, Lily moved to go towards it but was met with hard resistance pressing on her chest. She looked down. There were straps crossed across her chest, keeping her in place. The red buckle gleamed in the middle, like a seatbelt. How did Lily get here? Nowhere in her memory could she find the reason for her current position. She looked around again more frantically, now seeing the large metal chair that housed her. It was mounted in the wall. Her feet dangled off the seat, like a rollercoaster ride.

She tugged on the seatbelt now, but no matter how many times she pressed the button or tugged on the straps it wouldn’t let her go. Her heart was pounding, anxiety induced by her confusion began to bubble in her throat. Where am I? I want to get out! Get me out of here!

She looked towards the door again and in the round window now was a face. She shrieked in terror, closing her eyes and looking away. The door squeaked open and the sound of rattling wood filled the room. A shadow snaked its way over Lily’s squeezed eyelids.

“Miss?” a squeaky voice asked. Lily slowly opened her eyes. Standing before her was...

A wooden puppet. A large wooden puppet. It’s drawn on smile and black dots for eyes looked down at Lily. She stared back up at it. Its limbs were thin and swayed slightly. On its body was the costume of a jester with blue and green dots and poufy pants. Lily swallowed. Nervous sweat poured down her face.

“Lily RidingHour!” it exclaimed, jerking its arms up with a cladder. “Welcome to the new, improved, adventure you could only dreaaam of!”

“D-dream...is this...am I dreaming?” Lily asked in a trembling voice.

“Of course you are silly! You’re in the one and only Moon! World of endless dreams! Dream of endless worlds!” the puppet click-clacked. Lily wondered where the sound was coming from as the puppet’s painted face didn’t move. “This is the new transportation room to Moon! I am Puppet, created to guide all special children into the land of dreaaaams! Pretty impressive, right?”

“Y-yes...” Lily tried to smile. “U-uhm...I’m just wondering why...why am I already strapped in? Isn’t there usually a waiting room?”

“Hohoho! What a silly question. Well silly question asker, Madam decided that a waiting room was just oh so silly – who would want to wait to get into Moon! No one! So we got rid of that little feature and thought why not transport them to where they wish to go right away!” the puppet danced about with wild rigid movements with its wooden stick limbs.

“Oh, uhm, I-I guess that makes sense...” Lily replied weakly. Puppet stopped and turned toward Lily again. Lily squirmed in the restraints. It leaned down toward her, its wooden round face up close to hers.

“You do want to go to Moon, don’t you? How silly would that be, if you didn’t want to go to the best place in your dreams.” Puppet asked in a low voice, void of its previous obnoxious humor.

“Y-y-y-yes I want to go to Moon!” Lily stammered. Her teeth shook with nerves. Puppet jerked up straight again.

“Great!” he exclaimed, the squeak back in his voice. “Then are we ready for blast off?! Say it with me now!”

The small room began to rumble and outside that small window, Lily could now see stars.

“Three!”

Lily gripped her seatbelt tightly. She hated rollercoasters, they made her stomach queasy. The whole room jolted, and Lily felt her body being pressed down into her seat.

“Two!”

Puppet danced and danced, rattling its arms. The smile on its face made Lily want to puke.

“One! BLAST OFF!!!”

Suddenly the whole room violently shook, and Lily began to scream. Outside the window the stars became lines of light streaming past as the rocket zoomed up and up and up –

Lily closed her eyes.