Make Believe World

I'm starting work on a new children's book. It begins like this:

Tommy knew it was all make believe. Still he loved to listen to his grandfather's stories of a world where a yellow sun hung in the sky, green things grew tall and full, and people went out of doors without so much as an umbrella.

Tommy tried to imagine what it would be like to go outside without rubber boots on your feet or to feel sweat running down your back even when you were standing still. But no matter how hard he worked at it he just couldn't get those things to stick in his mind.

Then came the day that changed Tommy's life. His older sister, Rachel, got a job working in something called a greenhouse. Tommy went with his mother to pick Rachel up from work. A friendly man in blue overalls and a straw hat, a man Rachel called Boss, asked Tommy if he'd like to see where his sister worked. Tommy nodded and was out of the car faster than rain pouring out of a downspout.

Boss opened the door of a building shaped like the top half of a tunnel. Tommy stepped inside and nearly tripped over his own feet. Rather than a long dark tube, the inside of the building blazed with light from hundreds of bulbs. Long rows of low tables held more plants than Tommy had ever seen in one place. Granddad's imaginary world had come to life.