I look down at my mom, small as an ant from up here in the maple tree, the honey-golden sunlight beaming down on her, giving her the most angelic look I have ever seen. Her carrot-colored hair makes it easier to spot her. When the clouds hide the sun, and her pearly white smile shines up at me, happy that I am happy.
I take a look at where I’m perched, the multi-colored leaves talking to me when the wind blows,  the wind flowing through my auburn hair as the sun comes back out of hiding. I feel like a bird, flying through the air, my feathers ruffling all around me as I lean forward and soar through the air laughing with joy.
“Be careful!” my mom calls up to me, afraid I will fall.
“I am being careful mama!” I answer back. “Besides,” I smile full of silliness, “If I fall, I will just fly back up, like a bird!”
My mama gives me a skeptical look. “Oh really?” She chuckled. “Daddy tell you that one?”
I think about this for a moment. Daddy didn’t tell me that one.
“No…” I mumble, or whatever a mumble sounds like but louder, trying to be heard over the wind.
“Then who did?” she asks me, starting to pace around the tree like a chicken it seems. She never knows where to go or how to stay in one place.
I look around at the fluffy, cotton candy clouds, the bright pink and orange painted sky, as beautiful as one of Pablo Picasso’s paintings, for the sun has started to say goodnight, and my eyes land on the leaves, the beautiful bright orange, red, yellow, and brown leaves. The wind blows just a little, tickling the back of my neck as I hear the leaves singing to me,
“You can fly, just like us! Come on! Join us! We believe in you Zoey!”
“The leaves told me mom!” I scream at the top of my lungs causing my voice to crack. Both she and I laugh. I jump around excitedly.
“Be careful!” My mom warns me again, this time with a bit more seriousness in her voice. But I don’t listen. I jump and jump and jump and – misplace my foot on the air. 
As I fall, I try to flap my wings with every little muscle in my body, but I cant. I think really hard about it but it still won’t work.
“AAAAHHH!!” both me and my mother scream in unison as we both try to do something. 
The air around me thins as I fall closer and closer to the ground. I reach for something, anything to keep me from falling. I feel tears start to run down my face out of fear but instead of rolling down they roll up from falling so fast, causing me to feel even more frightened than before.
And then – thump.  My eyes are closed still waiting for it to come, the hurt, the pain, a broken limb maybe. But all I feel is something warm and precious wrapping me into it like a baby being wrapped in a blanket.
“You really ought to be more careful,” I hear my mama whisper close to my hear, her warm, red lips lightly brushing my small, cold earlobe.
I giggle a bit. “But I was!” I half laugh, half scream. “The leaves tricked me!" I scowl up at where I was perched. "Evil leaves."
“Come on,” she exclaims setting me down on the cool, dark grass so that it surrounds and tickles my toes with every step I take. “It’s time for dinner.” And we walk inside together laughing.