Of Friends, Forests and Disney

I left off last post talking about how I met Catherine and my friends. I remember one day, when we were all taking a walk in one of the parks near my old house I mentioned offhandedly how I wanted to be pretty, maybe try and put brightly colored ribbons in my hair. Catherine exclaimed, "Oh, so that's what you've been up to. I won't let you get popular with the boys! You're mine, Ellie! Mine mine mine!" and playfully chased me around until she grabbed me, holding me very tightly as if that would keep me there forever. We all laughed and thought it very funny.
I remember that along the rocky path we always walked on there was a forest at the end of it. It was really, really spooky, but Florence said that she wasn't afraid and tried to walk in one or twice. She's bravest of us all. Rebecca would hold her back and say that they shouldn't. Flo would always ask why, and Becca would say that we could get lost, or something along the lines of that. That's Rebecca for you. Stopping people from making bad or rash decisions. I think that Florence went in on a dare a few days later, but she either saw or heard something and ran out. We didn't blame her; those woods were creepy as hell.

Catherine once told me that she would only be comfortable going into those woods if I came with her. I agreed, and we tried going in  by ourselves. We never did. It was  just too unnerving. There were no birdsongs or rustling of little animals. Just pure silence. And even on the warmest, brightest days that forest was dark and cool. Something about it didn't seem right.

Back in the days of the Disney Renaissance, the girls and I would marathon through the ones on VHS and come up with stories all our own. Some of them were stories about how, through that dark forest, there was Beast's castle or maybe Sleeping Beauty being guarded by thorns. Others were about the Disney Princesses meeting and trotting into another tale. Maybe ones with Aurora fighting her way out of the dream world Maleficent put her in, or Snow White and Cinderella having parties with the dwarves and animals. We had so many stories going on that I can't possibly remember them all, which I wish I did. Memory is a strange thing.