NightNoises

Sailor here.

The full moon blasted me from sleep and shone in my eyes as I lay on the bedroom floor on my blankie. Zoe was still asleep which surprised me since she is usually the one who sits by the window in a square of moonlight watching the moon track across the winter sky while she night-dreams about the tundra. This night, though, Zoe was lying on the bottom of Mom�s bed chasing lemmings in her sleep. Her feet were twitching, her nose was twitching, her whiskers were twitching, and suddenly she let out a high pitched yip.

Mom woke with a start. Zoe also woke with a start and leaped from the bed running out into the hall. I was already awake, but started anyhow and ran after Zoe, ready to herd the lemmings away from the staircase. I didn�t want them to do that lemming thing and fling themselves down the stairs to their death. Mom leaped from her bed, too, and turned on the hall light, flooding us with the brightness of reality. The lemmings disappeared, Zoe and I looked at each other, and all three of us stood in the hall blinking and wondering what was just happened.

�Well,� Mom said, �Are we having a group dream? Everyone OK? Are we AWAKE now?� We were. We were. We most definitely were.

After peeking down the stairs to make sure no little furry bodies lay lifeless on the landing, we all trooped back to the bedroom. I re-dug my nest, settling back down on my blankie facing the window. Zoe took her place on the bed foot where she could watch the moon slide slowly through the oak tree. We listened to the hoot of our backyard owl, returned from wherever she goes in the winter. We listened to the faint bark of a dog. We listened to a lone car thump the manhole cover as it drove down our street.

Finally, Mom turned over and slept, dreaming of horses and the sea. I, too, slept and dreamed of herding sheep. Zoe stayed up and waited for the lemmings to return.

Sailor of the moon and Zoe of the tundra