Son and Star and Moon

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Once upon a time there was a young woman who stood on the deck under the cold blue-white light of the full moon, shivering in the cold and shuddering with sobs in her quilt. There was no peace that night and for many nights, many moons after.





Once upon a time there was a little boy. He was only three and his heart had been broken so many times in half of that year. His little mind could not cope with the loss, and his behaviors grew steadily worse over the years until he had to go far, far away. He traveled through great stone walls, over rivers, into a forest, and over mountains. He learned to become stronger than the monsters. Nine months later he traveled back over the mountains, out the forest, over rivers, and through the great stone walls, and into the arms of his family. He had left them as a feral beast. He had returned a young knight- ready but still learning his skills.

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Once upon a time there was woman, decades older, who stood barefoot in the dew-wet grass, the rich earth soft under her feet. She stood open to the world, no shielding quit, and felt the warm air of the southern fall night. Looking up she smiled at the moon, the tiniest of slivers missing from its face. This night it was the moon wrapped in a quilt of slowly drifting clouds, lighting a halo around itself in the frigid blanket. It peered down at her through an opening, its light still cold but somehow more gentle than so long ago.

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The woman turned her gaze to the east and saw, ever so faintly, Orion watching over it all. Faithful Orion, she thought, ever protecting. The songs of the crickets and katydids filled the air in joyful chorus- they were concerned with only what they had been born to do. As the breeze lifted and whispered in the leaves of the tall oaks, she turned once more to the moon and sighed with contentment. There was peace this night. Somehow she knew there would be peace for many more nights, many moons after.