Her feet crunched against the autumn leaves, the “crunch” the only sound for miles. The fog…she knew the fog was coming. The ominous arms stretching out to strangle her…there was no way she could outrun it, but she had to try. Her little legs ran as far as she could carry them until she ran into a long, sweeping black skirt. Looking up, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Sweetie,” her mother chuckled.
“Mommy!” The child’s short arms hugged the skirted legs.
“What is it, dear?” She looked down into her daughter’s wide eyes.
“The…the fog! It’s going to catch me!”
“Rebecca, what are you talking about? There’s no fog!” She hoisted her up onto her shoulders. “Look up at that blue sky! You see that?”
The cheery blue sky and sun shone pleasantly down on them as mother pointed.
“Mommy, that cloud looks like a giraffe!” Rebecca’s pudgy finger pointed at the cloud, which could’ve been a dinosaur just as easily as a giraffe.
“Yes!” Her mother twirled about enthusiastically as Rebecca clung to her and began to giggle. “So, you see? Today just isn’t the weather for a fog!”
She let the child down and took her hand. “You wanna go home now? I’ll make chicken salad sandwiches…” she coaxed.
“Mommy!” She gasped. “My favorite!”
The two began to skip through the forest as they returned home. Every few minutes, Rebecca checked behind her just to make sure the fog wasn’t following them. She finally decided to believe her mother: the fog wouldn’t come. No sooner had she given in than the leaves on the trees behind the pair withered and disintegrated. Life turned to death in an instant.
Later that night, her mother helped Rebecca into bed and drew the quilt with giraffes up to her chin.
“Mommy, the fog never came!”
“See, Rebecca? There was nothing there! Only the beautiful clouds, and trees, and sky…”
“And the sun! And the squirrels!” She squirmed excitedly in her bed.
“Yes, dear!” She kissed her daughter’s forehead. “Now, get a good night’s sleep tonight, okay?”
“Yes, Mommy,” Rebecca nodded.
“I love you, Becca.”
“I love you, Mommy!”
Turning out the lights, mother shut the door behind her.
All was silent except for the chirping crickets and other insects. Rebecca turned over in her bed and opened her eyes. She just couldn’t sleep tonight! The pretty stars are probably out. But Mommy told me to go to sleep…
Her little feet pattered against the carpet as she toddled over to her bedroom window. Sitting against the window seat, she looked up at the Big Dipper and Little Dipper in the sky. Those were her favorites. She remembered when Mommy first pointed them out to her a few weeks ago when they sat under the stars.
Ahhh…she sighed. Maybe I should go back to bed now…
Dropping down from her perch, she took one last look out the window. But there was something pressing up against the window that wasn’t there before.
The fog. It’s real. I was right.
With a shattering scream from the girl, the fog instantly vanished.
She didn’t know how, but Rebecca knew that if she believed in the fog, it couldn’t get to her. Even if it were there, it couldn’t hurt her. If she forgot about its existence, it would come back for her.
She had to remain vigilant. Forever. She must never forget that it could come again at any second.
She never forgot.