“Out to play.”

“What?” He was clearly lost.

She pointed at the playset in the yard. “Out. To. Play.” She repeated slowly. She sat down on the windowsill.

“Why through the window?” He asked, standing up.

She grinned at him. “Why not?” She swung her legs out the window. “Imagine me floating.” She instructed.

“What?” His confusion was edged with panic now.

“Imagine me floating, slowly drifting down. Otherwise I’m going to fall hard, and that wouldn’t be much fun, now would it?” she gave him a fake-serious look. “Come on now, you can do it.” He looked unsure. She sighed. “Look, imagine the bed floating first, alright? Just try to picture it.”

He glanced at the bed, then back at her, then back to the bed. Clearly, whatever had been bugging him before had been pushed out by her odd requests. She mentally patted herself on the back. Now all she had to do was keep him distracted.

“I can’t do that. Beds don’t float.” He stated, his voice deadpan.

She sighed. “This is a dream, did you forget? A moment ago you were five and in the middle of nowhere. Come on!” She gave him her best begging face.

He groaned and looked at the bed again, his face contorting into that same look of concentration. It was just as endearing on his older face as on his childish one. The bed remained solidly on the floor.

She rolled her eyes. “Stop thinking about it so hard. This isn’t an exercise, you aren’t trying to lift it with telekinesis. You just want it to be off the ground.”

“If it’s so easy then you do it!” He turned to her, his face stormy. His body language was confrontational, shoulders stiff, legs parted, hands fisted at his side. He clearly did not appreciate being teased, or unsuccessful.

She shrugged easily. Clearly the ‘ease in’ approach wasn’t working, leaving only one other alternative. “I can’t, this isn’t my dream.” With that, she jumped off the ledge.

She was about halfway down when she noticed that though she kept falling, the ground didn’t get any closer. She looked up. He was leaning out the window, face pale. Clearly, he had run there as soon as she’d jumped. “Really, you can’t imagine me floating, but an endless fall you can?”

he narrowed his eyes at her. Abruptly, the fall ended, and she landed gently on the grass. She cheered. “That was amazing!” she called up to him. “Now your turn!”

He shook his head. “No way am I doing that. I’ll take the door, thank you very much.” He turned away.

“Sissy!” She screamed on top of her lungs. “Chicken!” he froze. “You’re too scared to jump in a dream! Scaredy-cat!” She jeered, laughing raucously.

With a look of determination on his face he spun around and bounded out the window. He landed in a super-hero pose, down on one knee, glaring. She applauded him sarcastically.

“Way to go! You made it the ground.” She stood up and dusted herself off. “For our next adventure we’re going to go play on the swings.” With that, she dashed off.