Day 2

“Pssssstt….ssssshhhh……” Little by little, whispers of small voices intruded into the silence. Annabella opened her eyes and surveyed her surroundings. She had been so afraid when her carrier approached the tree, that she shut her eyes as tightly as she could. But now, as she opened them, she could see that she had been put on one of the bottom branches of the tree. She looked down and a small squeak escaped her lips – there was nothing between she and the floor which looked very hard and far away. “What will happen if I fall,” she cried to herself. “Surely my legs will break! And if my legs break, I will lose my beauty and forever be removed from the tree.” Annabella wanted to shut her eyes again and hope that the fear would go away, but she forced herself to raise her eyes.

“Pssssstt…..ssssshhh……” Annabella heard the whispers again. She looked to her left and right. “What dazzling lights!” There were little white, yellow, red, green, blue, purple, and orange lights, twinkling on and off.

“Pssssstt…..ssssshhh…..” Annabella couldn’t stand it any longer, gathered up her courage and spoke out in the strongest voice she could muster up – “Who is whispering there and why don’t you speak up? It is quite rude to whisper, you know. And frankly, I am lonely here and wouldn’t mind some company!” The whispers stopped completely.

She waited, and waited, and waited. Silence.

“Well, we didn’t want to scare you any more than you were already, so we thought we would try and be quiet for a while and let you get adjusted to your new situation. But, since you are eager, exactly who are you?”