"Get Lost."

"Let's play 'Get Lost,'" Jane says to me. This has become a favorite game. We attribute it to watching Annie and Alice in Wonderland. Jane plays a little girl who is lost and often cold. She comes to knock on our door, or wanders up to us after running through the "rain" (sprinklers) for a while.
















Often her family has all died--sometimes mysteriously, often tragically. "They got fired," she tells us sadly.
She has no place to go, and she just finds our "cottage" and wonders if the "nice people who live here" will help her.
















Sometimes we say no, at first. But then we end up remembering we have some dry clothes that will fit her just right. She puts them on.
She's hungry, too, so we invite her to stay for dinner. And usually it ends there, but sometimes, this little orphan also needs a bed to sleep in, so we offer the random extra bed we have and agree that she can stay with us for a while.
And then she is happy.
Sometimes she's not alone, that wanderer. Sometimes she has a little brother. Or a dad. They're always so relieved to find our "cottage."
















She usually pretends to be in rags, or that she doesn't have clothes. One time she stripped down in the backyard and knocked on the backdoor to play "Get Lost," but we drew the line there. "No stripping outside," we said.
We don't know how long she will stay, but we figure as long as she's happy, we'll keep her, and be her family.