Magical Moonlight

By Deborah Dybowski

The moon shone big and bright.  Brighter than I had ever seen it before. It lit up the city making it look like late afternoon instead of eleven o’clock on an ordinary night.

Since it was too hot to sleep, I sat on the balcony looking up at the moon with delight and amazement when suddenly I saw a tall, thin, character wearing a red and white top hat, with white gloves on his hands and a red bow tie on his neck.

He was riding a two-wheel bicycle along the telephone wires.  The sight was both strange and silly.  I laughed out loud wishing I could join him.

Echoing in the night air, I heard rhyming words, like cat, hat, mat, fat.

I shouted, “Bat, pat, rat.”  All the words came back to me.  I shouted all of them again and laughed as they all repeated in the night surrounding me with a magical whirlwind of colour.

The character on the bicycle was The Cat in the Hat.  I knew.  I so wanted to be a character in Dr Seuss’ book.  I would fit right in with my red and white striped pyjamas and my fluffy “cat in the hat” slippers.  Perhaps I too could ride a two-wheel bicycle through the dark night on the telephone wires while juggling three red balls.

I went inside to the kitchen and found some flour.  I mixed it in a small bowl with enough water so it made a thick paste and I painted my face white.  Then, I took a black marker and drew three, long, black lines on the sides of my mouth to make whiskers.  I was a great looking Cat in the Hat.

When I went back out onto the balcony, I shouted to The Cat in the Hat, “Cat, take me with you. Take me with you.  I’ll bake you a cake.  We will eat it by the lake.”

“Take, make, bake, cake, lake,” he shouted as he rode into the distance.

“Wait!” I screamed.

He turned and waved at me with his white-gloved hand shouting, “I can not mop.  I can not hop.  I can not STOP!  I have no brake!  For goodness sake!”

And, I watched as he rode on into the night until he came to the house of Thing One and Thing Two.  There, he crashed into a big, red box and the three of them laughed and played games until the sun rose in the east.

I wasn’t disappointed I couldn’t go with the Cat in the Hat.  I knew it was late so I went to bed dreaming of the green eggs and ham Cat in the Hat would have ready for my breakfast in the morning.  It was so delicious!

- Total nr. of readings: 422 Copyright © The author [2020] All Rights Reserved. This story may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author except for personal use.