Lola hated it now when children played. But it was only because she was a child too. A child at seven who had lost her mother two weeks ago.

She had no idea why her father would bring her here, the one place where countless children laughed and played.

Where children were tugging on each other’s hair and squealing with delight as a few were lifted to the sky. Others slid down a tunnel to their mothers’ arms.

Sand was stuck to the heels of Lola’s feet, even though she was wearing shoes.

This was the park her mother used to take her to.

Looking over her shoulder, she stared at her dad. He was balding in spots to reflect his absent-mindedness. At least, that’s what her mother used to say.

A sharp shoulder stabbed into Lola’s arm, ramming her to the ground.

She was left staring at the person’s feet as they ran away, trying not to cry or scream. Not from the pain at her kneecaps digging into the sand, but from the pain in her heart.

She wished her mother was here.

Pushing one foot through the sand to get herself to stand, she glanced over to her father, who wasn’t watching. No one was. The now fewer children at the park were instead taking their parents’ attention with “I don’t want to go” pleas.

Shoving her other foot firmly into the unfixed ground, she pushed herself up, but somehow, her foot broke through the sand into something.

Her broken heart jumped to her throat and cracked a little in response.

She was up to her knee in sand, a cold hand gripping her ankle under the loose substance wanting to pull her down.

Her heart was beating through her veins, producing a sweat. She forced her other foot downward to try to pull her leg free. The trapped foot wouldn’t move. She was stuck.

But only for a moment.

Her other foot fell through the sand, and open air grabbed her ankle, dragging her down.

All went black as dry sand shoved up her nose, burning her nostrils. Her lungs bargained to either cough or burst. The tiniest pieces of glass were scraping themselves all over her face.

She was falling through the air before she landed, legs first, on solid ground.

Pain shot through her feet to her head like a single stake had found its way through every one of her bones. She tried not to cry or scream, as she looked up through the darkness and saw a solid sheet of dried sand, smooth and hard like a glass window glowing above her.

It was the only spare light she had.

Something moved. Something in front of her. Something in the dark.

When it came forward, she saw it was a giant creature the color of royal blue, like the roses at her mother’s funeral. It had a long neck like a snake.

Its beady eyes were soulless pits of black. They stared down at her.

Every part of her body was shaking. Her teeth were chattering as if she were cold.

Moving a massive flipper on its solid, curving body, the creature shifted slightly, then moved its head toward something on the ground with its elongated neck.

With the shift of light overhead, moving the shadows out of the way, a knife appeared in front of her.

Whether she should grab it or not was the question that rang through her head. Did the monster want her to protect herself? Or was it challenging her to see if she was a threat?

The knife started to flicker as if it were going to wink away. Lola dove for it without another thought, her belly scratching across the grout.

When she grabbed it, it grew solid again. Solid and cold as she gripped it and jumped to her feet. She held it out at the ready, even though she had never held a weapon in her life.

The blade would not stop shaking. Or was it her hand?

With a nod, the creature’s lipless mouth stretched into a line of judgment. Or was it a smile? The knife flickered once and then went out. Lola couldn’t control her breathing.

Lowering itself, the creature laid its head next to Lola’s feet.

She stared down at its blue skin, wishing she knew what it wanted her to do. Not enough air was reaching her lungs as she stepped up onto it. A gasp that sounded like a wheeze escaped her when the creature lifted her from the ground into the dark cavern’s sky.

Back to the plate of sanded glass that she had broken through.

The sand wasn’t as suffocating as before when the creature pushed her through it. It was warm and welcoming, falling away from her as the creature pushed her up to the solid sandy ground.

Her father never noticed that she had left that day.

******

After that incident, Lola visited the playground any time she could, waiting for what had happened to her to happen to someone else.

But it never did. Not for seven solid days.

It wasn’t until Lola saw a sad girl with ebony braided hair get pushed into the sand. The girl started sinking until she was swallowed whole.

No one noticed, just like no one had seen when it had happened to her.

But the moment the girl returned, Lola was there. Ready to comfort her. Ready to help her realize she wasn’t insane. That she wasn’t alone.

Lola approached the girl who was sitting in the sand. She wouldn’t look up at her. Wouldn’t look at Lola’s shoes when she stood inches away.

“The creature… it gave me a scythe,” the girl said, staring down at her two hands.

“A scary blue creature with black eyes and no lips?” Lola asked.

“Yes. But how….”

“I met it too.”

“Did it give you something, then take it away?” The girl finally looked up at her. Her brown eyes were lost and sad.

Lola nodded. “A knife.” She looked around. “Where’s your mom or dad?”

The girl pointed to an unshaven man who was continuously falling asleep on a bench. A fly that was dancing around him kept startling him awake.

Lola must have made a face.

“He isn’t that bad. He just drinks all the time,” the girl said.

A hollow sadness broke open inside Lola. Did the girl not understand what that could mean?

“Where’s your mom?” Lola asked.

“She died six days ago in a car crash.”

Lola’s hollowness spread to her heart. “I’m sorry. My mom died too.”

“What’s your name?” the girl asked, inching closer to Lola’s shoes in the sand.

“Lola.”

“Hannah.”

******

Lola and Hannah became best friends. They grew up together, always hanging out. Never wanting to be apart. Both filling the empty holes that their mothers and fathers left in their lives.

The sand, at least whenever they returned to the playground, never took anyone else.

******

A year after graduation, Hannah and Lola took a quick trip to where an ocean met a beach. The beach house they were staying in was nearly falling apart. They truly were alone now. Both of their fathers physically gone. A once emotional absence more tangible in the homes they could never call their own.

Walking along the white sand, the grains tingled the bottoms of their feet. It was warmer than most beaches, even though the cold water washed over each glistening grain.

A movement squeezed Lola’s heart when she looked down. The beach was forming something. Tendrils of sand were coiling around their feet like snakes. Hannah gasped when she noticed it too. How the beach was rolling and stretching, working to push them into the water. They didn’t trip into the ocean when they began to run. One misstep had them falling into the sand and then through it.

The world had opened into a pit to swallow them whole.

They fell, trying to reach for each other’s hands as they screamed and then landed with a thud at the doors of a golden castle. A sky, the color of sand, trapped them beneath.

New clothing with golden chains and metal armor began growing over their skin. They were not stiff with fear but instead light with wonder. It was the time they had been waiting for. When the sand would take them again.

Entering the golden castle, they found gilded excesses all around. Radiant floors, walls, tapestries, mantles, and pillars were all licked with gold.

But on the pillars, weapons were laid out.

One was the knife that Lola had taken before. And there was a scythe that made Hannah inhale in surprise.

They welcomed them to their palms as if they had never belonged to anyone else. A once-lost limb that they had dreamed about every night.

Two figures appeared at their sides. Transparent beings that had their hands shaking and their minds washing over with all the sorrow they had tucked away all those years ago.

It was their mothers at the peak of their maturity and health.

Tears filled both of the girls’ eyes. They wanted to linger, to wrap themselves in their ghostly mothers’ arms, but the outside called to them. They could see through the doors a sandstorm brewing, taking over the burnished skies.

The weapons warmed their hands as if they were meant to fight.

The world’s chaos greeted them with a cobbled pathway clonking from their feet. It was a sound that was followed by many more. Girls were coming from around the golden castle at all sides. More girls who looked fresh out of high school with a weapon in hand and a transparent mother at their heels.

The sands raged as the girls formed a line and stood at the ready. Their weapons were held high. They did not want to be anywhere else. They had loved, lost, and gained. This was the moment they knew they would find their true selves and who they would have been with their mothers. Here, at this moment, they would find out whom they would become now that they were no longer lost.