Fiction exerpt: Did You See the Moon Tonight?

Some time after One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest …

A man plays the banjo from the street. It is nighttime. He faces a house. There are no lights coming from inside. He looks as though he’s been sleeping outside for days with the same clothes. He’s middle aged, or he may be ageless. He plays for a while, perhaps longer. A light is lit, and a bedroom window opens. A woman, a little younger, not much, pokes her head out, with laughter reserved for daytime.

 “Did you see the moon tonight?” he sings playing the banjo.

“I was drinking from the stream,” she sings back.

“Did you see the stars tonight?”

“I was closing my eyes to imagine love in the world.”

“Did you see the present I left at your door steps?”

“I come in and out through my bedroom window.”

“I want to share my world with you.”

“Sure, if you will enter my world too.”

She comes out in her nightgown. He puts his instrument down. They hook their right pinkies together and cross over with their left hand to hook their left pinkies. They recite together:

“Nurse Ratched, pills and order,

The world isn’t round, try no further,

Notice how night turns brighter,

So the grass you step on is greener.

My name is Candy, my name is Randle,

We pledge together to be the spindle,

To ignite, rouse and kindle,

Passion and magic, all with a candle.”

Still holding firmly to each other’s pinkies, they bring their faces close to one another and give each other a kiss on the right cheek followed by the left, and, they rub noses, moving their heads left and right 4 times.

(soon to be published in a collection of shorts called CONSTELLATIONS)