As she looked on at the stone wall cutting across the yellow wheat field, a distant memory rose to the surface of Lily’s mind

Her mom was crouched infront of a young Lily holding her hands and looking intently into her eyes. She clasped Lily’s young hands with the gravitas of a a wise sage.

With the utmost urgency to remember, she told Lily, “If you ever get lost in the wilderness honey, find a stream and follow it to civilization,” she held her daughter close and whispered intensely the single crucial key to freedom, “Because rivers will always lead to civilization.”

Trusting her mom’s advice, Lily applied it now. She would follow the wall, for wall would surely lead to civilization.

The first thing that Lily heard was the singing. It was faint, but she caught the melody easily enough:

So silently he steals

While willfully he wiles

What is chance to you

Is hands slight and guile

Take an apple my friend

Take an apple my friend

Put your hand on the wheel

Take one last spin

Perched on the edge of the wall was a fat red devil. Standing, he couldn’t have been taller than waist high. His little belly paunched out as he played a strange flute at was shaped like a crescent moon. He seemed to be in a world of his own. The fat little devil played absentmindedly, only stopping as Lily approached.

“What are you?” the devil questioned turning his head incredulously.

“I am a girl, and my name is Lily.”

His red tail flicked back and forth as he eyed her, “I could swear Lily is a flower’s name,” he added with a sneer, “and you are the ugliest little flower I have ever seen!”

“I am a GIRL!” Lily screamed full of frustration. She was tired of this place and how confusing it was. She was not going to put up with this line of questioning. Especially from the devil. She was NOT and ugly flower.

“Girl, Flower, Bear. You’re ugly with a capital Ug.” The fat devil smacked his hand on top of the stone wall and declared with a sense of authority.

“You are a mean, mean little man!” Lily stomped up a puff of dust from the grass. Guiltily, she looked down to check if she was disturbing another silk dragon’s home. Just a mat of grass where her foot had trampled the fragile wheat stalks.

“Why am I mean?” the devil was taken aback, his hands dramaticly pressed to his chest, “It is not my fault that you were born an ugly flower.”

“Whatever!” she hissed with frustration. She determined this was going nowhere. She need to find her way home and now. “Whose wall is this?”

“What do you mean by whose wall is this?” The devil cocked his head to the side as he tried to decide this new mystery in front of him.

“I mean, who does the wall belong to?” Lily’s gestured with a wide sweep of her arms towards the expanse of wall formed by civilization’s lost statues.

“The wall belongs to the wall,” the devil laughed, “just like the sky belongs to the sky.” Lily’s face fell. She couldn’t believe how ridiculous this interaction was.

“You are a strange little flower.” The devil mused as he reached out to pick a sunflower petal off her shoulder. He turned it over in his hand as if studying an ancient relic. Lily was still determined to ascertain some form of truth from the devil.

“Well, the wall separates one person’s property from another person’s property right?” Lily thought better and rephrased her question, “What does this wall separate?”

“Here from there,” the devil pointed from one side to the other, as if the gesture was self-evident.

“What!?” Her mouth dropped.

“Anooooother question?” he drug out the words slowly, as he looked at her with disdain “You should be called Question instead of Girl.”

Lily snatched back the sunflower petal from the devil and crumpled it in her palm, she was seething with anger. Her hands clenched the wilted petal at her side, she could feel her blood begin to boil.

“You!” she sneered.

“Whoever named you made a mistake!” the devil exclaimed with delight, “or maybe they didn’t. Maybe Girl means Question. Now that makes more sense. I get it now.” He smiled finally and began to place his crescent flute back into a handcrafted leather case he had at his side. The case was meticulously covered with strange markings and magic symbols.

“What?!” the sunflower petal fluttered from her and landed in the place she had stamped her first moment of indignation.

“In that case, you asking all these Girls is making me sleepy and a little hungry. I must be off,” the devil began to turn from her.

“You’re crazy!” she exclaimed.