Eighteen

The argument wasn't loud as such - nobody shouted. It was intense, though, and the pure anger in the air must have been what had woken Andy. He lay still, thinking that he should turn around and go back to sleep, but curiousness won. He got up and, careful not to make a noise, opened the door a fraction. The voices were still barely audible, so he crept along the hall towards the living room. As he passed by a window, Andy could see his grandparent's vehicle outside, the one of his father's parents, not his mother's. He made a face - they were not very nice, but at least he now knew who had caused the argument.
Few steps away from the half-closed living room door he stopped to listen to the voice of his grandmother Claire, high and sharp.
"This nonsense was abandoned with good reason. It's not even in the history books! And you let your son come in contact with it! I can't believe you let him talk to this, this..."
"Enough!" That was his mother. "'This, this...' just happens to be my grandfather, and I will not tolerate your scolding him! Andy had every right to see him before he passes away, he loves him!"
"But he will not be around to live with the consequences," replied Andy's grandfather. His voice always was deep and calm, that's what made it so scary sometimes. "My grandson shall never be told about religion, I thought we agreed on that."
His mother sniffed. "You did, yes."
"Now, dear," said his father. "The government banned religion from the public and from education. We shouldn't make exceptions."
"Fine. I know when I'm outnumbered."
Andy hurried into the kitchen just in time before his mother left the living room and locked herself in the bedroom.
When he had safely returned to his bed, only one question occupied his mind: What's religion?

Seventeen

It had been a lot of work, convincing his parents to let him visit Dan one last time. Dan...
When Andy was younger, too young to say "great-granddad", they had visited him and Lucy often. But after her death two years ago, Dan had started acting weird, or so Andy's parents said. Andy had noticed a change, but it hadn't frightened him like it did his parents. He was getting old, after all, and lonely without his wife. Andy argued that it would help Dan if they visited him more often instead of staying away, but he was only five at the time and his parents didn't listen.
Now he was seven, and Dan was dying. He wanted to say goodbye, and they couldn't argue that away.

Ten

Elisabet's hands were being kept warm by her parents, who were on either side of her. The rest of her body was tightly wrapped in warm clothes, with the exception of her face, which was terribly cold.
"Mom, how long do we still have to walk?"
"Not very far, honey," replied Lucy in the inaccurate but reassuring way of parents. In fact, Lucy didn't have a clue, and from the way Dan looked at her over their daughter's head, neither had he.
They had promised Elisabet something special for her seventh birthday, a trip to the new Fantasyland, but now that they were at the given address this didn't look at all like a good idea. The pedestrian’s exit from the parking lot had led to this long, straight road flanked by brown, frozen fields. The parking lot itself had been quite well filled - Elisabet had been very angry that they were so late to arrive - but nobody was visible on the road, nor was an end, like the entrance to the amusement park, in sight.

Eight

Elisabet felt uneasy. The new white thing they had dressed her in was of a strange, scratchy quality, and the room she was in was unfamiliar and huge; only the faces around her she knew. Mother had given her to a Friend, who held her now, with a smile that made her look slightly ill.
There was a man dressed in black, a Stranger, who talked using unfamiliar words and gestures. She recognized her name and something that sounded like “part of the glory of heaven that has strayed down to earth”, but that didn’t make any sense to her. Then there was noise, loud and intrusive, and some kind of strange song sung by a lot of voices. Elisabet guessed that maybe there were some more people around she couldn’t see. They also seemed to speak all together; the sound sent shivers down her spine.

Two

Today, she sat at the very edge of the primary school’s playground, her back to the hedge that marked the border. She had tried sitting in more comfortable spots before, but she always got in the way of other children and then was driven away. Her skirt would be dirty afterwards, she knew, and she had to wrap her arms tight around her knees to keep her legs locked so that nobody would see her panties; it was quite uncomfortable.
The girl had hidden her face behind curtains of hazelnut hair, so that the others wouldn't see what she was looking at. Her name was Anne, and her doe eyes were unfocused. She was dreaming her dreams - because even at the tender age of 10 she knew that life and dreams are two very different things, and she liked her dreams better. There she was a powerful witch, in a world not unlike her own, and all the other children liked or at least respected her. It was a wonderful world that she could easily get lost in.

“What you doing?”
Anne squealed and toppled over to the side, trying desperately to keep her skirt covering her knees. Lying on the ground, she turned her head and stared at the face that grinned at her out of the hedge.
The face said “Hi.”
“Oh, Brian, what do you want?” she asked, for she had recognised the boy, who was only a year older than her and wasn't often seen around school.
“I have watched you, and seen your dreams. You want to visit your world for real?”
Grumpy, Anne got up and brushed herself down. “Huh? My world?”
“The one where you’re the powerful witch.”
Shocked, the girl took a step back, where a stone caused her to stumble and almost fall over again. “How do you know that?”
“Told you. I've seen your dreams.” He pushed his neck and shoulders out of the hedge to look at her expectantly. “Want to go there?”
“Wha...? How?”
He offered her a dirty hand. “I know of a short cut, and that's the path we're taking now. Come with me.”
Hesitant, Anne took his hand and allowed him to drag her through the hedge.