Sneaky McSneakington

Things that fascinated little Amanda:

Secret symbols and signs. The flower in "Scarlet Pimpernel", for instance. Or hieroglyphs. Or hand gestures. I read a historical fiction about ancient Egypt in which a character (as I interpreted... I may have been wrong) placed his right hand on his left shoulder in a gesture of surrender or resignation-- like saying "Uncle". Long afterwards I felt more comfortable praying that way.*

Sneaking. I thought it would be great to be either invisible or very, very small, or maybe to become an animal of some kind, in order to sneak unnoticed.

Plain loaves of bread, which I associated with Palestine; and plain rice, which I associated with Asia.

Burying stuff. Like (I'm sure) practically every other kid, I buried stuff in my backyard. Had I found something already buried, I would not have been displeased.

Moats, drawbridges, and rope ladders that can be drawn up. Sherrill replaced the wooden ladder to my playhouse with a rope ladder, making himself even more a hero than before.

Sharks, tigers, hawks, other predatory animals and, to some degree, cannibals. It was more a sense of awe, less one of fondness.

Mud. Second best to clay. I tried making "Egyptian bricks" once, with mud and sand and dry weeds. It... kind of worked.

Flying or being able to swim underwater endlessly.*

Hidden passages and underground chambers. Yes, I mapped them out. Many of my dreams involved secret passages. For example: I was sleeping in the cupboard under the sink in some house and, when I woke up, instead of coming out, I went the other way and discovered a network of passages YAY.

Signet rings. I wanted one so very badly. I wanted to seal envelopes with it.*


*still haven't really given up on this one