Some time ago, Laney and I went on a moon vacation. This is something you do on a summer night when you don't have to get up for school in the morning. You put on your pajamas and walk to the beach and play there for a while in the moonlight. If we lived in some balmy community where you could take moon vacations in the winter when the moon was out at more reasonable hour, we'd take them all the time. But the combination of cold Chicago winters and the communist plot known as Daylight Savings Time (I believe I've made my feelings on that subject abundantly clear) moon vacations are a rare and special occasion in the Bon household.
After our first moon vacation, I began telling Laney stories about a fellow name Mervyn the Moon Man who would, from time to time, send his moonscalator down to Princess Laney of Sheridan Road and she and her dog Ginger and her cat Scrapper and whichever doll was in favor at the moment would sit on the moonscalator and ride it up to visit Mervyn. As time progressed, we started to meet Mervyn's friends: Suzie the Sunstress and Windoor Wildwave (not to brag on my child too much, but she came up with that name all on her on).
Suzie lives on the sun When Princess Laney visits her, she sungee jumps up for her visits. She rides a bubble to the bottom of Lake Michigan to visit Windoor Wildwave (seriously, how great is that name).
Tonight, Princess Laney and I had a rather extended trip to Leona's for dinner. Her friend Princess Brooklyn was there, and I sat a the table chewing the fat with Princess Brooklyn's delightful and regal parents.
So, it was about 9:30 when we left Leona's. By this point, Mervyn was putting on a pretty good show.
In the car, Laney said to me "I believe in Mervyn. I don't hear him with my ears, but I hear him with my heart."
And I thought that was such a lovely thing to say that I was inspired to tell Laney the story of how Mervyn, Suzie and Windoor came to do what they did. And I thought I'd share it with you all:
A long, long, long time ago, long before there was a Princess Laney or even the Realm of Sheridan Road, or even people or light, there was a flat stretch of dry, cold land and there were three little monkeys sitting together. The three little monkeys looked at each other and were sad and they each shook themselves very hard. And all of the sudden, instead of three little monkeys, there were two little girls and one little boy.
And they were all sad. One little girl was sad because it was so dark. One little girl was sad because it was so dry. And the little boy was sad because there was nothing beautiful to see.
The first little girl closed her eyes and concentrated very hard. And then she stretched out her right hand and all the fingers on it. And suddenly, light came pouring out of each finger. And then she stretched out her left hand, and all her fingers, and light came out of each of those fingers. She did the same with her feet, and light came out of all her toes. And she started throwing and kicking and the light came together and made a ball of light. And it got bigger and bigger. And the girl pushed the ball and she kept pushing and pushing until she left the flat dry land and went into the sky and out into space and she made the sun and built her kingdom there.
The next little girl pursed her lips together and closed her eyes and concentrated very hard and water began to stream from her mouth. And she grabbed the water and threw it. And the first place she threw it became Lake Michigan. And then she threw some more water and it became Lake Superior. And then she threw some water to make Lake Erie. And then the other two that i couldn't remember the names of (I am creative... my geography skills are lacking). Then she got up and started running and threw water to make more lakes and rivers. Suddenly she tripped. And it hurt, so she started crying. And she grabbed the water from her tears and made the great oceans of the world. And then, when she was done, she dove back down to the bottom of Lake Michigan and built her great underwater kingdom (we Chicagoans do not lack in our civic pride, do we?).
The little boy sat by himself and saw things happen. The sun and the water came together and made plants and they were OK. But not quite beautiful like he wanted. So he was still pretty sad.
Suzie got tired. She fell asleep and the little boy knew what to do. When Suzie woke up, he rolled himself up into a ball and started sucking in all the light he could. And the more he sucked in, the bigger her grew. And he rolled and rolled up into the sky and waited.
And then, when Suzie fell asleep again, he drifted the light, gently back to the land.
Windoor, from the depths of her gorgeous watery kingdom saw the gentle moonlight and she reached her hand up from the water and trailed her fingers across her watery ceiling. The water mixed with Mervyn's gentle light.
And that's when the world was ready for Princess Laney.
Now, consider yourself virtually tucked in. I'll bring you a virtual glass of water. Virtually kiss you three times on the forehead and once on each cheek and tell you that I love you more than milk or meat or money. And you can have the same sweet dreams I left my little girl with.
Me? I'm going to have a drink, watch a little Lost, root for the Panthers and be happy that I have a little girl who hears things in her heart that she can't hear with her ears.
Good night!
