living in a story

I'm gonna apologize upfront for writing blogs that are probably of no great intellectual stimulation or interest. But this is the time that I first felt alive and part of a story:

The book was Adam Raccoon in Lost Woods. It's about this raccoon that goes on a trip with King Aaron and wants to bring all his possessions with him. But crossing the river he drops ALL of them except one, this small red ball. So he and King Aaron and walking along and he is distracted by this ball so stops watching where King Aaron was leading and gets lost. His ball rolls away into Lost Woods and he runs in after it. The words are scary and full of wolves, but he searches and searches frantically for his ball :( Then the wolves start surrounding him, slowly closing in. And who appears but King Aaron! and He roars (he's a lion) and scares all the bad wolves away. Adam picks up his ball in one hand and in the other grabs King Aaron's hand who leads him out to safety. At the edge of the woods Adam Raccoon lets his ball fall to the ground. And King Aaron asks if he wants to pick up his ball. And Adam replies "No, I don't need it anymore!" and they walk off into the sunset.

I bawled like a little baby!!! I could NOT believe that Adam Raccoon would just leave his ball on the ground, and frankly it pissed me off that he did since he went into so much trouble trying to find it.

My parents were fairly religious so the book was supposed to represent humans leaving their earthly possessions to follow the King, but I never really took it that way because I was too devastated that the little red ball had been left behind.