Lincoln Campbell loved to play outside. He loved running around in the grass, making mud pies, and picking flowers to take home to his mom. Lincoln's favorite place to play was under the oak tree at the big park in the city. His family always went there on Sundays for a picnic and after eating all of his food, he would run run run to the big tree. Sometimes he would play pretend or just dig a hole in the dirt under the tree and bury trinkets in it. But Lincoln's favorite part of the tree was that normally he had it all to himself. On occasion he would share the tree with his sister, but for the most part he got to play all by himself under the branches.

Except for one Sunday, when he went to play, there was a little girl sitting under the branches.

"Hey! This is my tree!" He called, running toward the oak tree, arms flailing.

"You can't own a tree," the girl sniffled a little and gave him a mean stare.

"Well I'm the only one that plays here today." Lincoln crossed his arms and tried to stare back.

The girl sighed heavily and looked up at Lincoln from her spot on the ground. The girl's pigtails were a lopsided mess and she had dirt streaked across her face.

"What's wrong with you?" little Lincoln asked as he took all of this in.

"I'm playing hide and seek."

"With who?" Lincoln looked around the park, returning a wave to his mother. "I don't see anyone looking."

"They're bad guys," the little girl said. "They don't like me."

Lincoln nodded before taking a seat beside the girl. "I have to hide from bad guys at school sometimes. This is a good place to hide."

Lincoln held out his hand to the little girl, like he had seen his father do many times with other grown-ups.

"I'm Lincoln. I just turned six!"

The little girl smiled a bit and reached her little hand toward Lincoln's.

"They call me Mary Sue." She made a face like Lincoln does when he eats lemons.

"That's a terrible name." The blonde-haired boy laid down under the tree branches. Mary Sue followed his actions, wiggling around until she could find a comfortable spot to look at the clouds between the branches.

"I know," she said. "I don't like it at all."

Lincoln nodded, but his attention had drifted up to the clouds above the tree.

"Look!" Lincoln pointed through the tree branches. "That one looks like a dinosaur!"

Mary Sue wiped a streak of dirt off her cheek as she turned her attention to where Lincoln was pointing. She smiled then, for the first time during this entire interaction and that made Lincoln smile, too.

The two of them stayed there for what felt like forever. They pointed out shapes in the clouds and then when that got boring, they played pretend. Lincoln wanted to be pirates so Mary Sue climbed the tree to break a few branches so they could pretend they were swords.

Much too soon, Lincoln heard his mother's voice.

"Lincoln! Honey! It's time to go!"

Lincoln frowned, but turned to his new friend. "I have to go now. Will you come back soon?"

The girl smiled and nodded. "I'll be here."

Lincoln smiled, too. "I like looking at the sky with you. You always find the best shapes!"

Lincoln hugged his new friend goodbye and ran off to join his family. "Bye, sky friend! See you next time!"

Little Lincoln waved as long as he could before the girl and the oak tree disappeared from his sight. He talked about his new friend the whole way home and how he couldn't wait to see her again.

The next week Lincoln didn't even bother eating his lunch before running to the big oak tree. He ran the whole way around it before sitting in the dirt a frown on his face. His friend was gone. And it would be a while before he saw her again.