It wasn’t the plush cushiony seat or the red velvet curtains draped on either side of the window, or the lovely view of a canal and two narrow cobblestoned streets that had Avi dying to get his fifteen minutes at the window. It had nothing to do with the sunset painted sky or shadows that leaped from building to bridge and back, or the sailboats that shimmered in the evening haze. None of it meant much to six-year-old Avi Hadar. Those fifteen minutes were his escape, an escape woven of joy and pure imagination.
As he gazed out the window, he thought of his secret; a secret that the adults outside could only dream of possessing: The power of imagination. The power to travel over vast oceans, to explore the ruins of a lost civilization, or to even conquer sky-scrapping mountains, with just the tiniest amount of creativity and imagination. The window wasn’t just a window; it was a door into a world, parallel to our own.
As the sun set over the Baltic capitol, Avi began his daily people hunt. There were couples strolling along the canal chatting, pretending the world wasn’t at war. Again. There was a biker who zoomed by, blocking out the idea of innocent people being murdered because they were different. There was an older woman, walking her dog, acting as though families like Avi’s didn’t have to hide from the public, in fear of being separated and killed.
Avi glanced at the clock on the opposite wooden wall. He had ten minutes until he’d be shuffled back into the room under the stairs. His eyes snapped back to the window. He beamed though, as he saw instead--of the grayish green canals, or the strolling couples, or the shimmering sailboats-- a castle.
A castle, floating in the crisp blue sky. It was made entirely of glass, its sharp edges shinning in the sunlight. The glass castle formed a circle around a tall tower. Arches soared from the main building and connected with the tower. Avi pushed his head against the glass and looked down. He too floated on a little piece of land. The clouds were far below, and even further down, a village.
The house quivered. Avi looked up, and saw the castle across the wide field of sky. It too shook from an unseen presence. There it was again. And again. He looked around the sky, hopping to see something, anything that might clue him in on what was causing the shaking. Something caught his eye. Not something, but someone. It looked like, a girl. She appeared in the lone window of the tower, waving at Avi. He thought he could see her mouth groping the air for words, but he couldn’t hear anything. The house shook again.
Then, silence. It was suddenly shattered by a scream.
“AVI!”
Avi saw with terror, the girl and the castle falling; falling out of the sky hurtling towards Earth below. He screamed as he realized he too, was falling. Before the world went black, Avi saw a massive gruff hand, reaching down to grab him and the house…
***
Neighbors huddled together as they saw two parents and their little boy be roughly dragged out of a house. The mother was screaming her boy’s name. ‘Avi! Avi! I’ll find you one day!’ But the two sets of soldiers had different ideas, and pulled them away from each other. A couple strolled by, pretending they didn’t see what was happening. A biker zoomed by, blocking out the idea that they could be killed. And a older woman walking her dog acted as though families just like the boy’s didn’t have to hide from the public, in fear of being killed.