Glorious are weekly writing contests... but only if you can keep up. I had to call a hiatus for one week, then the next week I couldn't keep up with my own contest. So, this week, my best friend's contest was a little more managable: 

Condensing Thoughts   

In 200 words or less, you must ...   

~ explain the unique way a child was transported to another world (made up by you) to have an adventure;   

~ explain a fictional idea of how a custom or phrase came about, such as a story behind the name of something we use now;   

~ explain this quote:   “If there had been a word with which she could have described the glade before her, she would have used the word ‘young.’ Indeed it was a young glade, much younger than the forest that surrounded it.”; or 

As you can see, a lot of these choices have to do with fantasy or imagination.  So exercise your creative powers by not allowing your fantasies and imaginations to get out of hand (or to become a 3000 word treatise).  Remember, not one word over 200!     Make this one interesting!  Aside from being an exercise to condense thoughts, this is an exercise on style.  Be creative and use every word effectively.  

 That's the prompt, and so here's the story: 

~~~

She would have to remember that. Always the empty guest room held a delciously enchanted feeling, but she could not figure out why. Until now, that is. There was a door, a locked door, which she thought led into the closet, but she had never seen the inside of it. Mother said that she would know what was in it when she got older. But today, there was a curious key on the floor, and she thought, why not try it in the door?

  And now, she was looking into a sunlit, hilled country. It was warm, filled with the smell of roses and lemon-candy drops. She wanted to run in the long grass and to follow the river she saw winding in front of her. But then she remembered what her mother said, so she closed the door and locked it again.

  She smiled as she put the key back where she found it on the floor. Mother would want to know where she had dropped it, for she guessed that somehow, her mother was the one who was secretly enjoying that land. Someday, she thought, I will go in there too. Until then, I'll have to remember that.

~~~~

It's exactly two hundred words. I counted. I based this 'story' off of the first choice in the prompt....so, how'd I do?