My Arapahoe County happy place

• Mom took me there not long after we moved from Massachusetts and settled into a little ranch in south Aurora's Pheasant Run neighborhood.

Go straight, and turn left at the front desk.

• An old (or old to me) woman would curl into a chair, opening "Goodnight Moon" or "Green Eggs and Ham," reading from memory and revealing the illustrations to a room packed with kids like me. A wooden clubhouse nearby felt like the coziest winter day, no matter the time of year.
• I graduated from picture books and got my first library card. I carried it in a Velcro wallet and showed it off at school. Every few weeks, I'd stop by the library and leave with "Where the Sidewalk Ends," "Charlotte's Web" or whatever pulled me in.

That library made reading fun. Even after we moved, the place stayed with me.

Forty years later, I walk through those doors — make a left at the front desk — and time folds. I still see my mom. The old lady reading.

• The clubhouse is still there.
• For a moment, I never left home.