Driving down to further south, on the road which runs near the ocean twisted around the escarpment, there stood one small antique shop, quite alone. Mrs. Hudson, the owner of the shop was a slightly mysterious lady, yet, at the same time, could be quite generous and friendly. Some lucky weekend city escapers could be welcomed with her excellent choice of Earl Gray tea in her collection of antique cups.
It was one August night, a full moon. The burnt air of mid-summer started to cool down rapidly, and to mix with breeze from the ocean. Mrs. Hudson ate her supper, then sat down the chair right next to the window towards the ocean. It was her usual routine in the evening, enjoying Earl Gray tea in her favourite cup and saucer by Shelly.
There were truly hundreds of various objects in the shop, such as the old grass bottle and tea cups, someone’s portraits on the wall and the mirror table with some possibly horrible past, piles of old books with leather cover of which gold imprint of the title was almost rubbed off. When the moonlight shone on them, they became alive once more, as if someone put a magic on them. Mrs. Hudson had been enjoying this magical moment in her shop in the evening, for a long time by herself.
There was, however, one truly magical object in the shop. It was a small crystal point, sitting on the top shelf of the cupboard which faced the ocean. It was about 5 centimetres high, and the smallish hand of Mrs. Hudson could hold it with a bit of effort. Its body contained several cracks inside, and the small yet fantastically magical world could be existed in it. If one looked closer towards the base, there would be more of smaller cracks inside, making the body look white. If you look towards the apex, however, the body became transparent. When the morning sun shines on this crystal, cracks inside the body catch the light and radiate rainbow coloured sparks. And on the full moon evening like tonight, moonlight wraps around this crystal, making it alive and living. When Mrs. Hudson felt this breath of crystal, she smiled and said ‘good night’ to the crystal, then finally went to bed, leaving the crystal quite alone and free.
Mrs. Hudson never saw what would happen to this crystal afterwards, but quite sure that it would move around freely. And this is true, as all the crystal on Earth, whatever it was, secretly contains its magic inside them.
That full moon night, after checking Mrs. Hudson went to bed, the crystal changed its shape into transparent, with occasional rainbow, sparkling crystal cat utilising the magic of the full moon light. The crystal cat opened the cupboard door, jumped off from the top shelf of it, landed on the small table right next to the table. Then the cat heard the faint noise.
“ Meow.”
He (the crystal cat) heard the noise in between the soft and continuous sound of waves. He knew there were some cats around here, but it wasn’t the cry from them, he was certain. It was clear, transparent soft voice, and he thought he knew the voice. Was the voice possibly from the moonlight?
“Meow.”
The crystal cat answered back. He knew his answer was received.
Who are you? What are you?
He asked in his head but no response came. Silence fell. Only the soft sound of waves and occasional noise from the car from the road were heard, moonlight shone upon the world.
By next full moon, it was getting very cool with the clear sigh of the autumn. Sunday afternoon, when most weekender was heading back to the town, a tall and thin lady and her small daughter opened the door gingerly, and came in. When the mother found that Mrs. Hudson had just started to do the dusting, she said “sorry for coming in this time of the day” with faint voice in an apologetic tone. Mrs. Hudson smiled at her and assured that it was perfectly ok.
“Not a problem, dear. Or if my dusting has made you feel you were not welcome, I apologise. Would you like to have a cup of tea? Take your seat and relax.”
The kind words of Mrs. Hudson made the mother feel better. She smiled wanly and thanked Mrs. Hudson for the offer but declined. The girl, with her brown hair tied into two pig tails and wearing a comfortable looking, cotton indigo dress, walked into the back of the shop rather fast, then found the crystal on the top shelf of the cupboard which was facing the ocean. Beaming, with her right index finger pointed at the crystal, the girl told her mother with determined voice.
“That one, mama, that one! I would like to get that crystal.”
Without giving any discussion, however, the mother shook her head strongly. The face of the girl was distorted with sadness, and her shoulder shook a little. She seemed to being try very hard not to cry. The mother took her right hand and said quickly to Mrs. Hudson “Thank you for having us. Have a good afternoon.”, leaving Mrs. Hudson in a bewildered state of mind. That crystal was never for sale, as far as Mrs. Hudson concerned, but the mother could have asked her. Why did the mother say no to the girl, without any discussion? More importantly, however, how did the girl find the crystal which was on the top shelf of the cupboard at the back of the shop, facing the ocean, as soon as they came to the shop, and why did she want the crystal? Did she know anything about the magic of the crystal? Then Mrs.Hudson realised that it was full moon that night.
That evening, after making sure that Mrs. Hudson was asleep, the crystal cat was looking out the ocean from his favourite table right next to the window, being wrapped around by the magic moonlight, as usual. Then he heard the noise, again, among the soft sound of waves of the ocean below.
“Meow.”
He knew it was the same noise as a full moon ago. Staring hard at outside, he found figure of a small girl with two pig tails and indigo dress, magic full moonlight shining upon her. She found the crystal cat, her eyes beamed with joy. The crystal cat asked her with a bit of hesitation, and expectation.
Who are you?
The girl smiled, knowingly.
I am the moon cat.
The girl suddenly transformed into an iridescent white cat, and walked through the window towards the crystal cat. The moon cat looked through the eyes of the crystal cat, then hugged him tightly. Big droplets of tears came down from her eyes.
Finally, I found you. I had been looking for you for a long time, very very long time.
Me? Why?
wondered the crystal cat. They never knew each other before, except she came to the shop this afternoon and wanted the crystal but her mother said no. The moon cat replied.
Because I had lost you before, a long long time ago.
The moon cat kissed the crystal cat on his cheek. The crystal was mildly surprised, and that made the moon giggled.
I cannot stay long, but I will be back.
When?
On next full moon night. Now that I know where you are, it is going to be easy.
Kissed once more, the moon cat again walked through the window, disappeared into the darkness, as if she melted into the moon light. Left alone, the crystal cat was a bit taken aback, looking outside vaguely till the morning light shone upon him.
After that evening, on every full moon evening, the moon cat disguised as a girl, visited the crystal cat at the antique shop near the ocean. They would play hide and seek, chase each other in turn, or sit together on the small table right next to the window, chatting about what they had been doing and seeing since the last full moon night, and discussing how they felt about the music of soft sounds of waves down below the ocean.
It was 6 months after that night when Mrs. Hudson got a heart attack and passed away at the local hospital, with the presence of her son and his family. On that full moon evening, icy cold moon light shone upon the antique shop and cottage where Mrs. Hudson had lived. Most of the items in the antique shops were sold, leaving the inside of the shop, quite empty. The cupboard had gone, too. How about that magic crystal? Well, it escaped, rather opportunistically…When the tradesmen came and carried out the cupboard to their track, the crystal managed to escaped from them without noticed by anyone, falling on the ground first, then falling down the hill, until it hit the small area of the sand right on the ocean beach.
Small waves took the crystal into the ocean, as if it was an invitation for the new world. The cold water of the ocean cleansed the body of the crystal, then the cracks inside it disappeared, making it perfectly transparent and clear. There wasn’t any new world for the crystal cat, in the ocean, however. Its body never changed into the free-spirited soft cat even with the full moon light through the ocean. The crystal closed his eyes and heart, sinking into the bottom of the ocean.
It was the full moon night. As always, the moon cat, disguised as a girl with two pig tails, wearing the indigo dress, appeared at the front of the window of the antique shop, positively expecting the crystal cat waiting for her. The moon cat, however, could not see the crystal cat through the window. In fact, she could not see anything inside of the window. The shop was empty.
“Meow!”
Crying loudly and looking around, the moon cat started to look for the sign of the crystal frantically.
Where are you? Where are you?
Came no reply. The moon cat started to breathe fast and heavily, when found something glowing on the bottom of the ocean.
Is it you? The crystal?
She flew down like a shooting star on the small sand between the steep slope and the ocean. She started to run towards the bottom of the ocean, toward that glowing light. The cold ocean water pieced her entire body. The moon cat moaned, hesitated to proceed further. Then she saw the glowing light of the bottom of the ocean, once more.
“Meow!”
Crying again, the moon cat started to go further. The water took her totally now. The moon cat was losing her warmth, heart beat slowing down, breathing less and less… but she seemed forgot all about that. She was, apparently, only focussing on reaching the glowing light in the bottom of the ocean.
The water was cold, dark and heavy, like a chunk of lead. Full moon light was obscured by the current in the ocean. The moon cat saw a school of jelly fish floating like ghosts, silver fish gathered together behind the big rock, their eyes kept open. The current got hold of the moon cat, dragging her further and further away from the shore. The moon cat finally felt that this was it, the end of her life, sinking deeper and deeper, and possibly shedding tears from her eyes but she could not know as she was in the deep water.
I thought…
The final moment of reflection seemed to came to the moon cat.
After all that, all that me searching for the crystal cat, and found him, I thought, that we could finally settled on this life, happily together, for a long time ahead…
The current pulled the moon cat and the crystal further to the deeper end of the ocean. Through the night of the cold full moon, the moon cat, holding the crystal with her upper arms tightly, was dragged further and further from ashore. Then, a morning sun arise.
The sea breeze changed quickly, discarding the heaviness of the cold night before. Crisp and shining sun light started to sliding across the surface of the ocean. Then a ray of morning sunshine went deep down in the ocean, reaching to the body of the moon cat and the crystal. The moment the light touched them, millions of rainbow sparkle shot out from the moon cat and the crystal, taking then out of the bottom of the ocean to the sky above, where morning sun greeted them warmly.
The end.
Tomoko's Healing Space 