So, here’s what I ask: tell us a brief story from your life when you were Lila’s age, 11 years old. What worlds of wonder did you create and explore as a child? Could be a place, a feeling, an adventure–tell us about it!

You get extra points if your story sounds like something Lila would experience. Hey, if it’s really good, we’ll put it (or some part of it) into the game with your permission. Wouldn’t that be cool?

From my own childhood, I remember a couple of friends and I would play in some huge crop fields in the late autumn (after harvest, I guess). My memory is of when there were no plants, so it looked like a vast, barren kingdom begging to be explored. What dangers lurked out there in these abandoned plains?

We marched around with our walking sticks and wooden swords armed, our handkerchiefs tied up and filled with supplies (the usual peanut butter sandwich and some kind of fruit drink). The cool thing about these fields was the little crystal rocks we’d always find in them: shiny gems and magical pebbles sprinkled around waiting for us.

What strikes me now is that even in my memory of the place, I never noticed the roads and houses surrounding the fields. We literally went to a different world.

How about you?