The Silver Arrow

by Lev Grossman

Deep in her heart Kate knew that. She knew that her problems weren’t real problems, at least not compared with the kinds of problems kids had in stories. She wasn’t being beaten, or starved, or forbidden to go to a royal ball, or sent into the woods by an evil stepparent to get eaten by wolves. She wasn’t even an orphan!

Autumn came and she let go of her leaves—it was a relief, really, as though she’d been wearing a lovely ball gown that had gotten slightly uncomfortable and now she could finally take it off.

Years later, when she tasted champagne for the first time, she would remember being a tree in springtime and think: Yes. This is like that.