Backyard

Alone for hours in her vast backyard, Rebecca was perfectly content to spend her day imitating different insects, or birds. There were also squirrels and possums she could mimic in some manner, like a caterpillar's crawl to a butterfly's zigzag dance, she loved to imagine herself as other creatures or critters. Rebecca considered how they saw the world, and so she would pretend the spider's weave and reach, or an afternoon owl's solemn sentry, or a squirrel's intensity, precise motion.

Rebecca worried her parents. An only child, she has and likes her friends. But they're  not the priority for her that is more common among most children. Rebecca was often satisfied and absorbed with the company of her own remarkably energetic imagination.

This Saturday was Rebecca's tenth birthday. A party was planned, it was important to her mom, Rebecca realized years earlier. But it was the celebrating she didn't really get, a day of much fuss, she always recalled. 

But her friends came, the party was fun. Rebecca was glad for everyone's good time, and her mom seemed pleased for the effort. It was a relief. Saying thanks and bye to her friends later, Rebecca noticed the only kid there she didn't know, someone's cousin. The boy was oblivious to the others, and the party ending, Rebecca watched him with growing interest. 

The curious lad had stretched himself along the vine-covered stone wall that surrounded the backyard. It looked to Rebecca like he was blithely positioning his arms, and curling his hands to look like a climbing vine. Or, maybe he was being a spider. Rebecca's smiled broadly, as she walked over to re-introduce herself.