Welcome to Kadyland

The next morning was pretty typical around here.  The girls were at the breakfast nook eating breakfast when Kady started talking about her infamous kitchen mishap, when she nearly burnt down her dad's rental house across town attempting to cook a bowl of macaroni and cheese.   

I took a deep breath.  My dad's breakfast nook.

He'd special ordered it when we redid the house to pay homage to his dad, my immigrant grandpa who was a farmer.  Now three of his granddaughters were chatting around it.  He'd be happy. 

Later, we were reading our books on our Ipads when Kady, out of the blue, stopped.  "Come with me, Aunt Savannah," she said.

I was a little confused.  "Where are you going?"

"You'll see."

"Where are you taking me?" I asked her.  "I can't leave my family and my kids."

"You won't be gone long, no one will even know you're gone at all. I just want to show you a special place.  My special place."

I took a deep breath as I followed her to the backyard, where a mysterious portal glowed through the night.
"Where are you taking us, dear child?" I asked, partly real and partly rhetorical.
I saw a strange blank expression on her face.  Who was this little girl?  

"Kaydence Michele -"

"Kaydence Michele Plumb," I began, "don't you think you've gone a little bit too far with this?  I don't even know how to begin to explain this to your dad."

She looked at me with that disarming grin of hers that looked a lot like Bassy and smiled.  "You don't have to.  Since it's a hundred years into the future and in a completely different dimension, all of us will be long dead, so it's likely he'd never find out if neither of us told him."
I didn't know who this person was I was talking to.  But it sure didn't look like my niece.
She was dressed head to toe in a costume reminiscent of Wonder Woman.  She explained that her character, Astra Blythe, ruled over this utopia and was a super-heroine capable of making everyone blissfully happy.
"So, this character is, like, an alter ego?"  Kady gave me another of her broad smiles.

"Besides, he never took much interest in what I was doing anyway.  He and my mom were so busy with their schedules and when they weren't busy they were arguing.  As far as my mom was concerned, as long as I was out of her hair, she was satisfied."
She continued by telling me she'd had the story in her head since she was about nine, and when Sierra showed her the portal she figured she could do the steps to make it real.
"How did you find out about the steps?"
"When I came here the first time."

"Well, couldn't you just write this story down - instead of acting it out?"
"I'm an actor's daughter," Kady laughed, "it's not the same.  Before I write it down I have to experience it."

I'm wondering if Kady really knows what's real and what's in her head.

The next morning, we woke up to the strangest PINK sunrise I'd ever seen in my life.  Kady nudged me and said, "Welcome to Kadyland, Aunt Savannah."
Kadyland, indeed.  A pastel paradise, quite literally. 

And she went out and enjoyed the pastel paradise she'd created, swimming in the bluest water I'd ever seen...complete with pink flippers and a flower in her hair...

She collected more vials of dew from these giant flowers, and explained to me that each dew had a special power.  Some made you turn colors and the most powerful dew, the rainbow dew, was capable of making someone blissfully happy and even changed your gait.

She demonstrated by drinking a bottle of the dew herself.  Her gait changed and, frankly, seemed somewhat creepy.

She caught butterflies...

...dug up treasures from piles of gold...

... and for good measure came back and ate an endless supply of her fave peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I suppose being a crusty old adult, I wouldn't get what a place like this would mean to a girl like Kady.  And I wonder if she actually understands the boundaries between reality and fantasy.  What Kady did was make her fantasy real.  
 
It hit me that the little girl who'd had no childhood used the full power of our family secret to give herself one.

She created her own private Neverland.

Never change, Kady.