“Are you looking for this?” The stranger ran up to him as if from nowhere. He was definitely older; taller than the tall grass surrounding them. The browns of his clothes almost made him one with the yellowing grass. In the stranger’s palm was the toy he had dropped while running around on an imaginary hunt.
As he took the toy back, someone called (he couldn’t make out the name being shouted) and the older boy bounded away, gone as quickly as he had appeared.
He stared for a few moments in the direction the boy had disappeared until the humming of the dragonflies brought him back to reality.
Then he heard Pa’s voice. The man made his way to him through the wild, dry grass and picked him up. “Thank goodness,” Pa said with a sigh of relief, “Don’t go running into the grass again, I thought I lost you.”
It wasn’t often that they ventured outside the village walls. On this rare occasion, Pa needed some special wood and he had begged to follow along.
As Pa carried him home with him on one arm and wood in the other, he continued looking beyond the tall grass, wondering what more was out there.
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