Nana was floating.
She glided on the gentle winds of a soft summer afternoon. The sun was setting to her right and the moon was already high into the sky. The last fingers of golden light faded as the sun set. Soon it was twilight, the witching hour. In all her escapades, she had never been more anxious…or certain.
Below her the lights of a town flickered to life, one by one. "Wow," she whispered to the wind and it carried her awed utterance up to the full moon. The town had grown large and prospered in her absence. Some things were unchanged though. A school with twisted ivy along one side still supported a stall for ice cream and a church steeple with a tower of bells still rose romantically to meet the sky. And as she floated over it the bells began to chime the same song; the lullaby of her youth had continued to play, even after her plight, to rock the new babes to sleep.
The town had grown but remained itself and so had Nana. She circled like a predatory bird before landing on a dim rooftop where she withdrew her wings and donned a pale pink poncho with large red flowers that Ms. Harden had made for her last fall. Her skin was lightly tanned from days spent working in the sun and her face though still childlike had lost some baby fat. She had grown tall, her height was emphasized by her form fitting knee-length travel dress and her hair rippled down to her hips like platinum gold streamers. She climbed down into a dim alley and as she stepped into the brightly lit streets and her olive eyes searched the streets for familiarity.
As she wandered uncertainly toward the town square younger boys stared at her with curiouse admiration and an even younger girl looked up from her scissor work to stare. She stared at the gliding 16 year old in surprised awe until she rounded the bend. Stowing her cloth away in the pocket of het cloak and stuck her scissors in her hair where it was pulled into a loose bun. Then she ran after Nana as fast as her toddler's legs could carry her.
Nana finally arrived at the town's hospital. Even though it was called a hospital it was still only big enough to really be a clinic. She took in a deep breath before entering the building then, bracing herself, she walks in.