“Cold...or is it hot?” Kayla shivered with each word.

Kayla clutched at her body, a weird pressure in the air.

Her eyes fluttered open. Revealing, not the pink-dotted bedroom nor her dozens of clock plushies, but a vast whiteness. She scrambled to her feet, spinning around, eyes wide. Everything was pure white, not the white of a fallen snow, but the blankness of a fresh sheet of paper in the fancy shop windows. Unmarred. Unwritten.

Kayla stood on… something, surely. She wasn’t falling, but she cast no shadow. If there was something there, she couldn’t tell.

Kayla scrubbed at her tears, but they overflowed down her cheek. Her soft cries grew until her wailing filled the space, drifting echoless to die alone in the void.

“K-Kayla dear?”

Kayla’s whimpers slowed. She recognized that voice. But where.

Through blurred eyes, an old couple appeared like mist. The white void was replaced with an infinite field of flowers. Orchids lay beneath her feet to her knees and stretched out of sight!

Kayla twirled around in the abundance of color. New tears wetted the upturned corners of her mouth, as she whisked armfuls and filled her lungs with the sweet scents and the newfound crisp breeze. She turned her face upwards, like paint thrown perfectly onto a blank canvas, the cloudy blue sky resolved. Ears perked with the chirping of small sparrows and robins passing by.

She fixed her gaze onto the elderly couple before her, letting out a smile that reached ear to ear.

“Granny! Grandpop!” Kayla yelled in delight.

“Wow! I have not seen you in forever, momma said we couldn’t visit you anymore, I don’t know why, but I’m happy I’m he-“

Her voice trailed off, looking around once more.

“Where is here?”

The couple turned their heads to meet each other’s stare, a hint of sorrow behind their soft gaze. Granny began to cry quietly, laying her head onto her husband’s shoulder, holding on with her hands. Grandpop looked at Kayla sorrowfully.

“Kay...my wonderful granddaughter, oh how we missed you so. But, do you remember how you came to be here? A place not meant for your age.”

“Hmm. I um. Oh! That’s right!” Kayla stuck a finger out, having just remembered something.

“I had a delicious warm chowder that momma made last night and it got me oh so very tired because of how good it was! So I went to bed right after… that reminds me, I didn’t do my worksheet.” Kayla started to rub her head in frustration.

“Ah! That’s right! I forgot my worksheet! I needed to bring it early in the morning! Agh!”

Granny wiped her eyes with a handkerchief, tears starting to cease.

“Dear, you’re...asleep?” She asked, genuinely confused.

“Hmm, I think so!”

“But, but how is she here?” Grandpop muttered to himself.

“Ah, ok! So can you two wake me up please? I need to go do that sheet now or Mrs. Lenny will have me stay doing extra!”

The couple once again looked at each other, only this time slightly laughing at their granddaughter’s worries.

“Ok dear, how shall we wake you?”

“How about with… breakfast is ready!”

“Breakfast is ready? Will that really work Kay?”

“One hundred percent! My body will not let such precious food grow cold!”

Kayla closed her eyes and crossed her arms, mentally clearing her mind to try to really feel the effects of the words. Puffing her cheeks out and furrowing her eyebrows, she was ready.

The chuckling of the two grew louder but remained gentle, they stared at the young child in front of them before saying in unison,

“Breakfast is ready, Kayla.”