My Dream About Stacy and the Rope Ladder By Penelope B. Schwartzbaum

Stacy and I used to go to her country house for two weeks every summer (when her dad and mom were together). There was a rope ladder in the playground nearby, the kind that hangs between two trees. Stacy climbed it every day, and I hated it. (It was boring and it hurt my hands!) Anyway, in the dream, we’re on the first rung of the rope ladder. We’re about to swing to the second one, and a crazy wind hits. The rope starts shaking.

“Keep going!” screams Stacy. But I can’t. I fall and fall and fall and then I land in this squishy mound of brown dirt. Except it’s not a mound, it’s a pit. I’m in a hole below the earth. (I think we learned a fancy word for that in Earth Science, but I can’t remember it.) I keep calling, “Stacy!”

I can barely see her. She’s a little speck moving along a rope ladder.

I try to pull myself out, but the walls keep crumbling in my hands. And then I realize I’m not alone. There are lions in the pit! They’re baby lions, they’re so cute! But wait! Cubs still bite! I’m going to die! I scream to Stacy, but she’s gone. She made it to the end. No one sees me! There’s hot lion breath on my neck. I can feel whiskers on my shoulder. Then I wake up.