Maybe eight year old guides don't think about time in quite the same way grown-ups do.
Grammy and Grampy Silver consider their Gabby a very special person, and of course this is what one expects from grandparents. On the other hand, they're probably right. You see, Gabriela Silverova has an extremely active imagination. Many kids do, of course, which is usually a good thing, as it usually is in her case. Just consider what imagination means. It means making images. And Gabby happens to be very good at making images. She has that wonderful gift of seeing bigger and wider and longer and better when she closes her eyes and lets – you guessed it – her imagination take over. She simply sees more with her eyes shut.
Now if Gabby's brain were a chest of drawers, what would it be like? Well, you'd soon see that each drawer, and there are many drawers, too many to count, contains special things. One drawer has mammals – every kind you might think of, from aardvarks to zebras. Another is filled with birds, another with fish, with snakes, with trees, with rocks and pebbles, with brooks, with ponds, with flowers, and so on. Why, one even has different clouds, and so it goes: toys, foods, stylish dresses, dresses not so stylish, insects, boats, mountains, city streets, furniture. You name it, it's there in one drawer or another. Yes, Gabby's mind is overflowing. As has been said, she has a most active imagination.