Institution (a teeny story)

Story by K. MacMichael

Eowanna was yawning when she saw the lady in the moon, the lady untangling her hair with her fingers and looking lonely in the dark.

Then Eowanna reached up and gave the lady in the moon her favourite hair brush. It was a special brush, with its heavy handle and backing made of the universal ebony; with its stiff and sharp bristle teeth made from the edges of clouds. Not everyone could have a brush like it, and Eowanna told the lady in the moon to be careful with it.

The lady in the moon brushed her hair with the heavy cold brush. The lady in the moon gathered the strands of hair which the brush pulled loose from her head. The lady braided and twisted the strands. And Eowanna took them up and tossed the braids and strands, sweeping her arms wide.

The braided, twisted hair fell and rose and drifted. The hair caught onto the empty spaces in the sky.

Eowanna clapped four times and the braids of hair began to shine. They became the stars.

But the lady in the moon was still unhappy. Their star children drifted and turned so far away and were so small, they had so much twinkling of their own to do, they couldn’t keep the lady in the moon company.

Cold, the lady in the moon cried. Where her tears fell, the silver spread, creating the sea.

Eowanna thought and when she knew what to do, she dived into the sea. Where she plunged down became the navel of the world. She sang a song, under the great silver waters. Small and new lives began to pull themselves out of that naval, wanting to hear the song.

Soon, in the sea, wise octopuses worked, their new tentacles and blue brains pulsing, making a thank you for that song.

The lady in the moon could not see what work they did, and she could not hear the song through all the water, so she grew impatient. She threw Eowanna’s hair brush down, and where it fell into the sea, the bristles grew into mountains, and the little fluff left stuck between the teeth of the brush became the trees. From the trees birds came tumbling forth, and from the mountains came little stumbling funny-looking creatures who grew up to call themselves the people.

Still under the sea the octopuses worked, and with the help of whales and stranger fish, on the first dawn they raised a great construction, their son, who burst into the air, ablaze.

Eowanna spun the sun up from her fingertips as she too rose from the sea, still singing, and they created day. At last, the lady in the moon smiled, to have such a great light shine upon her beautiful face.

Dancing to Eowanna’s tune, the vain lady in the moon and the dripping sea’s son turned together around the world, talking, learning, getting to know each other.

They danced together around the world and when they disagreed, their arguments became the storms. When they were content, the skies stayed clear, and when the sun teased, the lady moon saved up her laughter. When the sun swept away, the lady moon trembled out her joy in shimmering lights of green and blue and sometimes red, sharing her joy with everyone, including the octopuses, the birds, and the people who had the sense to look up and see the truest of all things, and the aurora of the sun and moon’s happiness.

Eowanna also saw all of this, and Eowanna, the youngest goddess, tired now of singing, gathered up a bed of stars, snuggled herself down above the world. She closed her eyes. If you listen hard, you can still hear the echoes of her song, in between waking and dreaming.

Thank you for reading. You may notice some small improvements here on my blog, I have, I hope, made it a bit easier for people to subscribe, so you can receive future stories and poems directly into you email inboxes should you wish. I expect to release at least one short story or poem each month for free for the rest of the year, to you, blog readers!