At first, and for a long time afterwards, I thought of it as a bubble. Like one blown from a plastic wand held in a child's hand. So impossibly beautiful, yet so very fragile.

Look, but don't touch. Never, ever touch, lest that shimmering beauty be destroyed in an instant by my careless poke.

How was I to have known?

That bubble, one September night, it suddenly changed into something else. It grew even as I shrank. It moved even as I stood still, transfixed. Mesmerized by what was happening. Fearful, yet unable and unwilling to flee.

That bubble, it encased me.

It still encases me. It protects me and it traps me at the same time.

It was never a bubble.

It was, is, my world.

It took me a long time to see the truth.

I belong here.