Homesickness by Michael Rosen

Once upon a time I was in a story where I met an invisible thing who said that I could have one wish and I said that my wish was that I could go back to the place and time I miss the most and the invisible thing said that I could. But: though I could go back to the place could never go back to that time. Then I pleaded with the invisible thing and said, "Please can it be both, the place and the time?" And the invisible thing said, Very well I could, but if I did go back to that place and time, I must promise not to speak to anyone in that place. "What will happen if I do?" I said and the invisible thing said that if I did, I would never get back to now. I agreed and in a flash I was there and then in that place and in that time: It was winter there were my friends, the ice on the pond was thick enough to carry them sliding and shouting all morning and we felt the ice with our fingers. Then it was spring: the birds in an orchard whistled through the blossom and I brushed a branch with my fingers. Then it was a summer evening, just a gust of wind raised dust in the alley where my friends kicked a ball I was in goal and the ball smacked my hand till it stung. Then it was autumn and we lined up in rows in silence waiting for orders to walk in single file to class and I touched the shoulders of the boy in front. But I didn’t speak to anyone. And then I was at a station waiting for my mother to come home from work. the trains rolled in and out and when the woman in the kiosk asked me if I wanted some sweets I remembered not to answer her and another train pulled in, the doors opened and I could see my mother step down on to the platform and when she reached me, she put her arm round me and said, "There’s no need for you to wait for me here, you’ve got a key, you can let yourself in why don’t you go home?" And I shrugged and said, "I like waiting here…" And she held my hand. And the invisible thing whispered in my ear, "You’ve spoken." "I know I have," I said. "You’ll be here for ever and ever," it said. And I said, "But you’re just an invisible thing in a story. I can decide what I’ll do. You can’t rule over me.” And the invisible thing laughed. "You’re right. You’re totally right and I am wrong. You will be able to get back." I laughed too And I said, "And I will be able to come here again." But the invisible thing spoke again: "You’re right about it all, but for one thing." "What’s that?" I said. "Yes, you can travel to and fro between here and there, between then and now just as you want. But without me, when you go to the place and time that you miss the most you won’t be able to touch anything. Not a thing."