I was lying down on the window seat covered in layers of blankets and pillows supporting my back. I tried to stay as warm as possible. The snow is lovely, I thought to myself. During the winter, I was usually home alone sitting in the cold living room because my family was working hard for Christmas money. I was holding a book in one hand and hot cocoa in the other. The book I was reading, was in the least of my interests, nonetheless I kept reading it. I almost finished reading when I heard a knock on the door. I sat up taking all my blankets off and putting them aside. Slowly, I walked up to the door and looked through the peek hole. My heart started to beat faster and faster. I had butterflies in my stomach. A smile formed gently upon my face. I tucked my hair behind my ears and ran my fingers through my long blonde waves hoping to make my hair look nicer. Then I unlocked the door and opened it. There, right in front of me was the guy. The guy who was always perfect, the guy who I’d been a friend with since 2nd grade. The guy I’d loved for so long. I tried to find the right words to say.

“Joe, what are you doing here?” I said kindly, but what I wanted to say was, “JOE!”

“I mean, hi. How are you?” I looked puzzled and sounded dumb.

“Hi Caley. I’m good,” he pecked his head towards mine a bit, “Yourself?” He asked.

“I’m fine, thanks.”

I hadn’t seen Joe for about a year because he switched schools and we could only talk on the phone and we didn’t hang out at each other’s houses because we could never get rides and because he lived about 30 minutes away. I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful it felt to see him again.

“I’m here because…” he struggled. I could hear him whisper to himself, how do I put this? Then he said it. The words I had been terrified to hear, and I knew it was coming, just not this soon.

“I’m moving” Moving?! Already?! My mind was repeatedly screaming this.

“I’m moving next month…to Nevada.”

Oh come on! We were both supposed to finish 8th grade in our different schools then go to high school together. He’s joking, he must be. Then I think he saw me smirk a little and maybe let out a quiet chuckle because it was right after I thought he was joking when he said,

“I’m not joking.” and he was being completely serious. Nevada is so far away from where we are, Michigan. I realized he must have been freezing because he was standing on the porch while the snow was still falling, so I told him to come and sit down in the kitchen while I made him a cup of hot cocoa. We talked about what this was going to be like without each other’s support during high school. We could always look up to each other when something was bothering us, or teachers were giving us a hard time. And then we were remembering the first time we met. We were playing tag and Joe was it. He managed to tag me and I thought for sure he had cooties, so I was scared to death. We talked about all our snowball wars we had planned every year. They were always on December 1st because we were so excited for Christmas, and throwing snowballs at each other was our way of showing how excited we were. I think we both realized how much we were missing each other already.

“Joe, I have to tell you something before you go.” I couldn’t believe I was going to tell him this.

“Sure, anything.” He said curiously.

I sat down next to him, took another sip of cocoa, and before I knew it I had blurted everything out. I told him how I’d liked him ever since I found out there was no such thing as cooties. I told him how everyday I wanted to talk to him about the guy I liked, but I always had to pretend like I didn’t like anyone at all because I didn’t want him to know I liked him. When I was done, I think my eyes were getting watery, but I didn’t want to cry. He looked confused. He started to get up from his chair but I held him back.

“Me?” he asked, “It was me all this time?”

“Yes it was you the whole time.” I smiled. We were laughing for a while talking about how weird it was that I hadn’t told him until then. We both felt awkward too. And to be honest I still wasn’t sure how he felt about me, besides the fact of being friends. After Joe and I finished our cocoa, he told me to put on my warmest clothing I had, and the biggest jacket I had. I didn’t ask why, I just did what he told me to do. When I was done, he said he wanted to take me somewhere.

“What? Where?” I asked.

“You’ll see.” he smiled. Then he told me to put my boots on. I knew we were going outside, but I didn’t know where. Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door before I could say another word. We were running. We ran past a few alleys, a few neighborhoods, and we ran across town. We passed the old antique shop where Joe and I used to work for a summer job to earn money for a little blow up pool. We went past the ice cream shop where we used to get triple chocolate fudge ice cream cones. More flashbacks were running through my head of all the things we did and all the places we’d gone. After a while we were out of town and headed toward Greenville Woods. It was even colder there, and wet. The snow was draped on all the trees. The snow was really deep, but not so hard to run in. Joe was still holding my hand with more of a grip now. Then something strange happened, I wasn’t sure what was going on, there was wind blowing through the trees making a whistle noise and we were running really fast. Then I heard a loud clap, like thunder. It wasn’t scary though, but I was just a little confused. There was no snow on the trees ahead of us, and I could see behind them. What I saw was the most astonishing thing I’d ever seen. He asked if I was okay, because after all, what I was seeing was almost too much too handle. I told him I was fine. We weren’t running anymore. He let go of my hand as we caught our breath. He saw in my eyes and noticed I was in awe.

“This is what I like to call, Paradise.” He said. That word was perfectly used because I believe that’s where we were. Paradise. There were clear skies, no snow and the sun was shining so big and bright. I realized that all my warm clothing was gone and I had a yellow sundress on. My hair was pulled back in a bun with small curls falling in my face. Joe was wearing a plaid, red and white, button down shirt and white Bermudas.

“How did you find this place?” I asked.

“We found it.” He insisted.

“How, though?” I asked again.

“I can’t explain how or why, you just have to enjoy it Caley, this is for you!” he said assuring.

“But I don’t understand how we got here.” I was still confused.

“I found this place a while ago but I didn’t want to tell you because I knew I was moving soon and I thought if I took you, you wouldn’t enjoy it as much.” He went on, “As we can tell, I was right.”

“Oh no, I’m enjoying all of this very much! I’m just trying to figure out how we got here.” I explained. I decided he was right; I just needed to enjoy everything.

“Come on,” he said, “I want to show you around.”

He took my hand again and pulled me up a hill. Behind that hill was a whole body of water, crystal clear water. We ran through the water. We started splashing each other until we were soaked and we drew in the sand. Then he showed my all the animals. They didn’t run away from us and we were able to pet them, and hold them. There were beautiful large birds flying over us, all different colors. We looked at plants that were shaped weird, not like plants I’d seen before and I saw some trees also that weren’t familiar to me. After looking at everything, we went back to the hill that was by the ocean and sat down there.

“Joe?” I asked. He turned his head toward me, “Am I dreaming all this?”

“What, do you need me to pinch you?” he grinned.

We started laughing.

“No, you’re not dreaming.” He whispered, but loud enough so I could hear. He was staring at me, but I kept looking at the ocean. I was waiting for him to say something. Anything. He got up, put his hands out to help me up, and took my hand once more while we ran on back to the cold woods. I heard the loud clap as the bright flash came again and all our warm clothes were back on. That was positively incredible, I thought to myself. And then all the thoughts back at home hit on me again. Joe was still moving. I already wanted to go back to Paradise. It was a cure for all my sad thoughts, and it brought in the happy thoughts. We were about a block away from my house when Joe had said something I’ve never forgotten. It was simple and sweet. He said,

“I’ll always love you and I’m going to miss you. You’re the best friend I ever had.” I felt special and horrible at the same time. The thought of him leaving made me feel nauseated.

I said the same thing, but in my own words. I tried to smile, but a tear came running down my cheek instead. He wiped it off my face then we hugged and said bye. I knew I wasn’t going to see him for a long time. I ran home, and wrote a long story about Paradise. That was the last time I’d seen Joe for 3 years. Now, I’m in high school. Joe And I talk on the phone on Sundays, because most of the other days of the week we’re busy. I haven’t been to Paradise ever since that day. It would only be right to go if I was with Joe.