I've been up to my eyeballs with a project - pulling together my journal writing to put together for my children. I think I've told you I'm calling it Half Past a Freckle. The amount of work makes my brain sore - and has nothing to do with this post.

I'm currently rereading Watership Down by Richard Adams - and loving it. Within the story are several stories as told by the rabbits to each other.

In my novel there's a story in the story and it's where the title of the book comes from. It's a story the mother tells her children at night - a story she made up - a story the children love and never tire of hearing. The story reflects the mother's own loneliness.

It's important to add that when David was little we collaborated on this story - It was later that it became a part of my novel. I researched for the possibility of similar stories and found none.


*****


Chapter Five

The Night the Moon Cried
A bedtime story
As told by Grace Bonenfant Twomey

Long, long ago in the time of dinosaurs, only two celestial beings hung in the whole heavenly sky above. They were Sir Sun and Lady Moon. Oh, also a comet they called Master Comet who flew across the sky with his special wishing powers.

They were all very beautiful, but Lady Moon had been sad for many, many years. She pouted because she envied Sir Sun, which really wasn't a good thing. Lady Moon thought Sir Sun was more special. You see, most of the whole world carried on when Sir Sun shined. Now when I say the whole world, I mean birds and rabbits and lizards, because people didn't exist yet. The lizards especially liked Sir Sun and would lie on rocks to soak up the heat of a blazing day. Just like the lizards you see sunning and running around our yard. Flowers grew full and fragrant with lots of pretty petals with all the colors you can think of. Sir Sun even made rainbows that looked like they arched from one side of the world to the other. Sir Sun was important.

Lady Moon... well every night she was always her same boring self. That's what she thought anyway. Though she shined a perfectly round creamy glow every night in the blackened sky, she saw nothing special about herself and wished she could be different and feel special like Sir Sun.

One night, long after most creatures slept, the perfectly round Lady Moon glowed in her lonely sky. Bees had buzzed home to their hives, bunnies cuddled in their warren, which is a fancy name for a rabbit home, and birds sat tightly wedged in their nests with their warm bottoms on top of tiny eggs. A quiet hush came over the world and Lady Moon felt lonely and sorry for herself.

Suddenly Master Comet streaked across the sky out of the nowhere blackness. Well, I tell you, Master Comet nearly scared Lady Moon right out of the sky. Though he flew in a zooming hurry, he paused to kiss Lady Moon with a wish, because he saw her sadness and knew she needed one.

Can you even imagine the ruckus of excitement Lady Moon made? "Oh please, oh please, Master Comet. I do have a wish. I truly do. I want to be different. I'm always my same old round self. I want to be noticed. I want to be loved. Then I won't be lonely anymore."

Master Comet thought for a moment and then whispered,

"You want to be different; you say that you're lonely...
Be warned, my dear Moon, you've just one wish only.
Your life will be different; your wish will come true--
Choose with great care, whatever you do."

Master Comet then told Lady Moon in a serious voice, "You've always been special and never knew it. Your large round glow has always been a dependable beacon for all the tiny life that stays awake during the night. You're more powerful and important than you've ever realized. You even control the waters on earth that go up and down with the tides. But I will grant you your wish."

Master Comet sizzled and spun and...POOF!--the wish happened as he mystically pronounced, "Life comes in all different shapes and sizes, and now, so will you."

So, this is how it happened that Lady Moon now changes her shape and size every night for eternity. Sometimes she's just a tiny sliver and looks like a small white smile snipped in the vast darkness. Sometimes she's a juicy orange cut in half and her glow drips down to earth. Sometimes she even becomes invisible, and once each month she is her old Moon-self with a full round glowing shape.

With her wish come true, Lady Moon was so happy she started to cry. Big sparkly tears flowed from her eyes...millions of them. And what do you suppose they were? Why, they were the very stars we see each night when we look up at the sky above.

As years have passed, way long after the dinosaurs, Sir Sun continues to be special. He shines on the beach where people swim and build sandcastles and nap under big stripy umbrellas. Sir Sun shines on mountains to make them look purple, like in the song you children sing at school--and people lick their ice cream cones fast when he's shining his brightest and hottest. Everyone still loves and notices Sir Sun.

But they also notice and love Lady Moon. Why, there's even a nursery rhyme about the cow jumping over Lady Moon, and she's studied with telescopes by important scientists all over the world, and people hold hands and fall in love as they gaze up at her. In fact that's what happened to your father and me--we fell in love beneath the glow of Lady Moon.

Lady Moon radiated so much happiness because her wish to be different and noticed came true and she never felt lonely again because the millions of stars in the sky became her friends.