Today, for your reading pleasure, the continuation of a short story written by yours truly. (Part 1, here; Part 3, coming later this week.) Enjoy!
<<<>>>
“Why on Earth is the moon in my attic?”
I don’t expect an answer, given that I don’t expect the moon can talk.
But it can. And does. Not in English, or even in words, but in… well, I guess it would be best described as music.
It says something like hello, and sorry to have disturbed you. I gather that it hadn’t intended to introduce itself until morning.
“Oh, that’s all right,” I say, because polite, inoffensive lies are my conversational default. One day I’ll slip up and tell someone what I really think, and then the world will end.
Truth is, I’m not terribly upset to find the moon in my house. Is this in any way logical? No. Can the ramifications of this event be anything short of disastrous? Likely not. Should I be contacting somebody about this? I don’t know who, but probably yeah.
But the moon knows me. I hear my name in its song.
And I know the moon. Sort of.
In one sense, it’s like a favorite celebrity. I know the moon’s stats. I can list its achievements. I recognize its face every time it shows up in pictures.
In another sense, it’s like an old friend. The sight or thought of the moon warms my heart. I feel the love in its light. It’s just always been there, the way family is.
The shining crescent says, Because family is what we are.
Confusion contorts my face. “Biological?”
It laughs. Nothing so Earthly as that. But you hold a part of me. And so you are my child.
I’m somewhere between touched and giddy. “That’s… special. But why are you here?”
The moon’s music sighs. I am old and tired and thin.
“Like a hobbit spread over too much bread?” I’m pretty sure that’s not quite the quote, but I’m tired, too, if not so old. My head’s too full of missing my pillow to bother with first-rate Tolkien references.
Like a moon, it says, with too many phases behind it. Wax and wane, wax and wane… I haven’t the will to grow full again.
So I’ve come down to tell you goodbye.
<<<>>>
Enjoyed what I wrote? There’s loads more where that came from! Browse the DEShipley catalogue, why dontcha – including my latest release, “The Marriage of Allyn-a-Dale (The Outlaws of Avalon, Book 2)”. Already read it? I’d greatly appreciate your review!
Ever On Word 