This girl was scared
because it was the 80s
and little girls had many things to be scared of
back then.

I wanted to impress her sister
and think of myself as a writer
so I composed a story
of the far-off fantasy land of Parisia
where little girls could conquer their fears
because, hopefully, nuclear waste was a less realistic concern
and mutually assured destruction was not the only deterrent
hanging over their heads.

I passed a dot-matrix print out to the big sister
who said she gave it to her little sister
who didn’t really know what to make of the story
so I didn’t earn the kind of points I wanted to with the older one
but she didn’t stop talking to me,
so there was that.

And I came up with the land of Parisia
which I was able to cannibalize parts from
in the future,
so there was that, too.