Jake woke up slowly.

He did not know where he was.

He could barely remember what had happened: he had been stalking a fly but then there was an owl… and a cat? He got knocked down, that’s for sure.

The little chameleon looked around him, first with his one eye, then with the other. He was inside a cottage of some sort, warm and cosy and not too bright. A girl walked in with a mealworm pinched between her fingers. She walked up to Jake and said in a soothing tone “Hey, little guy! Are you hungry yet?”

—
Leila was very relieved:

The girl stared out the window. Well, she could hardly be called a girl anymore.…

The girl stared out the window. Well, she could hardly be called a girl anymore. She recalled, many decades ago, wishing that she were an adult. Her mother had replied “No, you don’t.”

Eventually the girl’s wish was granted. She got married and raised three beautiful children. Now, her long hair was thinning and required chemicals to maintain its dark colour.

By no accounts was she still a girl. She was a woman. And yet, she always had a thought: “One day, when I am all grown up, I will know what I want to do with my life.”