“Good night,” hollered Julie down the stairs.

“Good night,” echoed Julie’s parents, Martha and Steve.

Julie moved swiftly to her bed, knowing what wondrous adventures lay in her sleep. She wrestled gently into place, a wide grin on her face. Every minute spent awake was a minute away from her nightly adventures. She said her prayers: Dear God, Thank you for the sun and the trees. Thank you for my delicious dinner. Please keep Gramma safe tomorrow as she goes in for surgery. And please, please, please let my dreams be fun and adventurous. And let there be a pink unicorn. Amen. Without another second awake, Julie was fast asleep.

Julie’s whole new world was swirling, with bright and beautiful colors unseen to the human eye. She leapt at every bright color she saw, as if trying to capture this beauty to bring to show and tell. She was at the oasis of her vast world, with a fountain of colors, all mixing in the middle. This was complete bliss. This was Julie’s true home away from dull, boring, repetitious reality.

Just when Julie thought this land of perfect ecstasy couldn’t get better she spotted a unicorn atop a hill, with rainbows for wings and the purest pink for a body. The unicorn had a delightful white horn on her head. The unicorn approached Julie majestically. Bursting from the fountain of colors was fanfare of trumpets. The word majestic undercuts the meaning and wonder of what was happening.

With plenty of courage and an abundance of curiosity she leapt for the hill that the unicorn was atop of. However, she did not jump; she flew, as if in zero-gravity, towards the unicorn. She touched it. Her hand at that point questioned why it had ever stroked something that wasn’t perfection like this coat. The majestic coat became more grainy and imperfect as she petted it. She was coming back to the real world. She opened her eyes and saw her rescue dog sleeping next to her on the bed.

The life of Julie was really never the same from that point on. She would sleep often times up to twelve hours each night, in hopes that she would become in touch with her real life once again. She knew she could never return which broke her heart. Her parents hired a shrink for her, in fact seven, one for each day of the week. Socialization was hardly an option through Julie’s perspective. She simply hoped and prayed for the return of her unicorn.

She painted her room a gloomy bright pink, but it was okay because no one else saw it. She never truly slept, nor was every truly awake. She was a useless zombie that longed for the day she would meet her best friend once again.

One night her parents managed to keep her up past nine o’clock, but the struggle was very real. Julie’s heart was torn in two by her longing and knowing that she was wasting time that she could be using to find a unicorn. Finally she went to bed.

Julie hopeless muttered, “good night,” down the stairs.

And Steve and Martha used every shred of joy and love as they hollered, “good night,” up the stairs.

Julie crawled into bed and closed her eyes, and there on a distant hill was her unicorn.