RiverSparrow's Stories

A smile. The simple symbol of happiness. My grandparents. The people who always make me smile.

Almost every summer, we would pack five suitcases into the car (one for each family member and one for my dad's shoes) and travel for three hours up to the sweet town of Wetherby where my grandparents dwell. But the highlight of this experience concerns a garden.

Behind the Victorian style house was a land of green grass, tweeting birds and squirrels scampering up knobbly oak trunks. Here the sky was clearer and the smells sweeter- apart from the occasional dog dropping under the conker tree. And in the centre, hidden by a cluster of thick bushes was my den. Yes, you can roll your eyes but I know you're envious. Your insides are boiling with jealousy because my den was far superior to yours... so HA.

Me, my insufferable sister, my cheeky cousin and my baby cousin. The 4 rulers of 'Den De La Awesome.' An imaginary fire crackled in the circle of stones and twigs in the middle; the leafy canopy above protected us from the wind and rain, and smoothed down branches act as our impenetrable door.

But why does this memory hold such a high place in my mind? Because it was one of those rare places where a kid can be just a kid- free to act as a valiant knight or royal princess... or a warrior ninja in my case. Every year I would disappear into a world far away from a world so close. And every year I would smile.