It was a beautiful, sunny day in Callie’s hometown in Illinois.  It  had rained for the past 7 days so Callie was so excited to see the sunshine.  She had been waiting to go outside to play and today was the day.  Callie could not wait to run to her tree fort that her dad built for her deep within their backyard.

Callie’s tree fort wasn't just a tree fort to her. It was a lush castle in the middle of a beautiful flower garden.  As Callie ran out of her house she exclaimed to her mother, “I’ll  be in my castle  for the  day.”.  Callie’s mother knew exactly where she’d be; in her tree  fort. 

Callie had not been to her castle in seven days because  of the rain. As she approached, she saw the trees waving hello, the squirrels welcoming her back to her castle. She was so excited to be back in her true home, her castle in the woods. As she climbed up the stairs, she saw the woods go still.  The trees were no longer waving, the squirrels had disappeared. She grew suspicious.

She reached the top of the “castle” and stood on her outer balcony, still wondering why everything was  so still. As she looked out  to her beautiful land filled with trees,grasses, flowers. She could not believe her eyes. All the animals of the land, were gathering. They were approaching her castle and as they did, the flowers were changing colors and were even more bright and beautiful. “What was happening?”, she thought.  Just as she was thinking this, her best friend  of the  land, the great  deer approached  and  said, “fair  lady  this is your welcome back, we are all here to say  welcome back, one week of not seeing you is too  long, now lets celebrate.”  

Celebrate they did, until Callie’s mother called her in for dinner. “Don’t worry friends, I will be back to my castle tomorrow, rain or shine!” Callie exclaimed.