My breath hung in the air before my eyes. As I walked the fallen brown leaves crunched under my feet and the bare tree from which they feel stretched high over my head to hold up a sparkling canopy of stars. The moon over head shining down through the gnarled branches cast a milky mosaic on the ground around me.

The day time noises of birds and deer faded away as the night’s noises creeped in to fill the air. I thought back to what my mother would tell me when we went shopping, that if I ever got lost that I shouldn’t go anywhere.

“But mom,” I spoke aloud to myself, “I’m scared and it’s so cold out here… I might not see you again.”

My eyes began to well up as I started to give in to my fear. So, I gave myself a hug, rubbing my arms and feeling the goose bumps protruding from my skin. I turned around and around but nothing, as hard as I tried to remember, looked familiar, all the trees looked the same.