Day Six: Glistening in the Moonlight

This is Day 6 of the October Memoir and Backstory Blog Challenge, which is something about a 6 year old.  To catch more on this, please visit  Jane Ann McLachlan.
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Sheriff John was a Sheriff.  He wore a shiny badge and shiny boots, and wore a cowboy hat that coveted up all his hair.  I never saw his hair. 

Every week, he would sing, "Put another candle on my birthday cake", as a carosoul cake spun around and the camera went in for a close up.  There were lions and tigers and bears on the carosoul.  They spun around and around, as if dancing in their own world.

I was six.  I closed my eyes really, really tight and I thought that if I closed them hard enough and thought extra hard, I could turn into one of those animals.  And so I did it.

I closed my eyes and I blinked just like that Genie in TV that has a home in a bottle.  I closed my eyes and I thought so hard that I expected to open my eyes and literally be in the body of a lion.  I could definitely feel my tail growing, I thought.  "It must be almost time to open my eyes."

I scrunched my eyes more now, as I wanted to make sure that nothing would be missing.  I wanted to be sure as ever that my teeth would be long and sharp, and that my claws would glisten in the moonlight.  "There had to be nothing better than glistening in the moonlight," I thought, momentarily forgetting that I was still a girl.

I thought I was ready to open my eyes now, without getting it wrong.  Certainly I was on the right track.  Ever so painfully slowly, I opened my eyes.  At first, they were crinkled up from squinting so hard in my prayer.  I saw the light of day, and there he was again.  Sheriff John was reading off a piece of paper.

"Wait!", I thought, "I'm not supposed to know what a piece of paper is!" My eyes began to blur as the first tears started forming.  "I must not be a lion!" He wouldn't stop to care about my plight. "Linda, Joanne, Sarah, Tom, Edward, and Brian!  Wishing you all a Happy Birthday!" said Sheriff John, happy as could be.

I was disappointed, hurt, and well, I was sad.  I was shocked.  "How come it didn't work?" "I can't believe it didn't work!" I was already six years old, the smartest one in my class, and I get Gold Stars on my tests!  What did I do wrong?

I sunk in the living room sofa.  I cried big tears of reality and disappointment.
And I learned, as we all do, that I couldn't just change into a lion whenever I wanted to.

I kept it to myself until just now.  I'm only telling you because I know you won't tell anyone else.