“Grandma, how did you get to and from the goblin world you always talk about?” It is the same evening, and Grandma just got home from a volunteer service at a soup kitchen. After a quick “Hello!” and a hug, I jump right in, asking her question after question, most of which had been on my mind for a long time.

“When did you do all of this stuff? Is the world hidden behind the tree line? Does the world actually exist? Was the sky green?” It all comes spouting out, some good, some very, very dumb.

“Whoa, whoa, slow down,” says Grandma. “I know you have a lot on your mind about those stories, but let’s take it one question at a time. Why don’t you take a deep breath and ask the first question again.”

I do. I breathe in for four seconds and out for four seconds. Then I ask the question that was most important to me: “How did you get to the goblin world in the first place?”

Grandma looks around quickly with a little fright in her eyes. “Let’s take this inside.”

We go inside and sit down at the small round table in her kitchen. Grandma starts up her story: “When I was your age, I was just messing around, getting into trouble, and playing outside all the time. One day, I came out to the area where I live now, and I found something… extraordinary.” The pause gives me chills. “There was a mysterious glowing force out by the tree line. Being the curious and daring teenager I was, I walked up to that pink glow. I walked over, and I stared at the space between the trees for a solid minute. I had been to that area before, and I had never noticed it before, but the air was swirling with visible blue patterns, like something a child would draw to represent the wind.

“I stretched out my hand to touch it, and it goes right through. I pulled my hand back. It was warmer on the other side, and just a little more humid. I was curious to know what was on the other side. So, I do what any rational adult would do in this situation: I jump through. That’s when I found the awesome world that I have been describing for so many decades now. The sky was green, the trees were pink, and the towers in the distance came in just as many shapes as humans do. I was fascinated by my finding, but I was not set on telling anyone. Not until I explored it first, anyway.

“However, I was drawn in too deep. At times, I got stuck in there for longer than I ever anticipated. I was trapped in that world for four years at one time, and it pushed me to my very limits. Each time I came back to this world, I was traumatized from all the things I had seen. I could never tell anyone what I saw. Everyone would think I was crazy. They had never seen those things before. They wouldn’t understand. I couldn’t even bring myself to tell my own husband when I got married.

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“The only benefit of being in that world was the time difference. Several years could pass in that world while a few hours passed in this one. Many of the creatures there had a very long lifetime, living for centuries, even millennia, before they experienced old age and, eventually, death. I could always go back and find my friends still there, only having aged a few years and gained maybe a single wrinkle, something I was certainly jealous of in later years.

“Now I have a question for you: why are you so curious about how I got to this fantasy world? It’s all just a bunch of stories. I never saw a need to tell anyone how I would’ve gotten there if there was such a place.”

I quickly struggle for an answer, and just decide to be vague about it. “I was just curious.” I don’t say anything else.

We stare at each other for a solid minute. The only sound in the room is the ticking of the grandfather clock and Grandma’s knuckles rapping on the table. Finally, she speaks. “Okay, then. Just remember, don’t go past the tree line. I don’t want the neighbors to get upset with me.”

“You got it, Grandma,” I said with as much conviction as possible. Too bad I had already jumped past the tree line three times already.

Grandma’s brief backstory gave me so many answers to all the questions I had. Now I had more questions involving the science of the time difference, the fact that she had kept it quiet for so long, et cetera, et cetera. I don’t know how she handled all the stress that came from doing all these things.

I don’t know how I am going to handle the stress of exploring this new world, but I promised myself that I would talk to someone if it ever became something I couldn’t handle. If anything, Grandma gave me all the information I needed to handle this new world. I’m ready for it. What could go wrong?

I pack up some simple snacks and a couple sandwiches from Grandma’s pantry for the journey ahead of me. I didn’t plan to stay there long. According to what Grandma had said, I could stay there for a couple of days and come back out as if two minutes had passed. No one would miss me if I decided to do that.

After packing up, I walk out to the tree line for the third time in two days. I stare again at the blue wind swirls that hid the world on the other side. Grandma was my age when she started her adventure, so now it’s my turn to try.

I reach out to the blue wind swirls that concealed the fantasy world from my own world. I took a deep breath. Once I stepped through, I was going to stay for a couple of days. No longer. Grandma would know something was up if I did.

I step through, feeling the familiar rush of warm air and the split-second flash from greenery to pinkery. I’m here now. I’m committed, and I was going to go on my first adventure. Hopefully I can tell stories as good as Grandma’s by the end of it.