The Moon in the Garden

Chapter 1: The Sleepy Puppy Arrives

The garden gate creaks as ⟨Character 1⟩ shuts it for the evening.

⟨Character 1⟩: There. Locked. Now I can finally sit down and do nothing.

A small puppy with floppy ears trots in from the lane and flops onto the grass with a jingle.

⟨Character 1⟩: Hey. This is a private garden. You can’t just lie down here.

The puppy yawns, slow and wide, and its eyes droop.

⟨Character 1⟩: Go on. Home. Shoo.

The puppy doesn’t move. It looks up at the sky.

⟨Character 1⟩: What are you looking at? There’s nothing up there but clouds.

The clouds slide apart. A big, round moon shines down.

The puppy gives a tiny bark and wags its tail.

⟨Character 1⟩: Oh. The moon. You want the moon.

The puppy barks again, softer, and puts its paw on ⟨Character 1⟩’s shoe.

⟨Character 1⟩: I can’t bring the moon down. It’s very far away.

The puppy’s ears droop. It looks at the moon, then at ⟨Character 1⟩.

⟨Character 1⟩: Fine. We’ll look for it. But just for a little while.

The puppy jumps up and follows ⟨Character 1⟩ deeper into the garden, its collar tag jingling.

⟨Character 1⟩: Stay close. And no barking at the roses.

Chapter 2: Looking for the Moon

⟨Character 1⟩ and the puppy look behind the rose bush, by the shed, and at the gate.

⟨Character 1⟩: Nothing here. The moon isn’t hiding in the roses.

The puppy yawns and tries to climb over its own paws.

⟨Character 1⟩: Careful. Your feet are ahead of you tonight.

⟨Character 1⟩: You’re getting tired. Maybe we should stop looking.

The puppy nudges ⟨Character 1⟩’s hand, then sniffs at the shed door.

⟨Character 1⟩ pulls out his phone to check the moon’s phase.

⟨Character 1⟩: Waxing gibbous. That means it’s up there somewhere.

The puppy nudges the phone with its nose until ⟨Character 1⟩ puts it away.

⟨Character 1⟩: Okay, okay. No screens. Just us and the sky.

They sit on the grass. ⟨Character 1⟩ points up at a long cloud.

⟨Character 1⟩: See that cloud? The moon is behind it. It’s just hiding.

The puppy’s eyes droop. It wobbles on its paws.

Then the puppy spots something round and bright in its water bowl.

⟨Character 1⟩: Woof! Woof!

The puppy barks at the bowl and wags its tail.

⟨Character 1⟩: That’s not the moon. That’s the moon’s reflection.

⟨Character 1⟩: The water is like a mirror. The moon is still way up there.

The puppy tilts its head. Its eyes droop lower.

The puppy curls up on ⟨Character 1⟩’s foot and lets out a small sigh.

⟨Character 1⟩: All right. You rest. I’ll stay a minute.

⟨Character 1⟩: Maybe the moon isn’t something we catch. Maybe it’s something we wait for.

The puppy’s breathing slows. The collar tag jingles once, then is still.

Chapter 3: The Moon Above

⟨Character 1⟩ spreads a blanket on the grass and lies down beside the puppy.

⟨Character 1⟩: Come here. It’s cooler on the grass, but this blanket is warm. We can both use it. The puppy can have the soft corner. It is very sleepy anyway. There is no rush tonight.

The puppy creeps onto the blanket and circles twice before lying down.

⟨Character 1⟩: There you are. Lie down and rest your heavy head. The grass is soft, and the blanket is softer. We’ll just wait here together. Waiting is allowed.

⟨Character 1⟩: Look. The cloud is drifting past now. It is moving very slowly. A little more, and we’ll see what it was hiding. Just watch the sky.

The long cloud slides away and the big round moon shines down on the garden like a porch light left on.

⟨Character 1⟩: Thuna. The moon. There it is, big and bright. You looked all over the garden for it. You looked behind the roses and by the shed. It was up here the whole time. Now it is finally out where you can see it.

The puppy gives a happy sigh and rests its head on ⟨Character 1⟩’s chest.

⟨Character 1⟩: Do you know something? The moon is always up there. Even when clouds cover it, it doesn’t go away. It just waits for us to look again. That is how I know to say it clearly right now.

⟨Character 1⟩: I had a whole evening planned of being alone with the quiet house. Coding is easy, but people besides you are loud, and today had too many of them. But this is better than what I planned. The garden gate is locked, it is getting dark, and there is nothing to do and nowhere to go. No one needs a website from me at this hour, luckily. This is exactly the kind of quiet I actually wanted: lying still in a garden someone else has claimed.

The puppy’s eyes close slowly, like a curtain coming down.

⟨Character 1⟩: The cloud hid the moon from us. We hunted all around the garden for it. Then the moon and a tired puppy found each other over a bowl of water. Tomorrow the moon comes back. Tomorrow this spot stays free for you. Same time, blanket and all. Deal?

The puppy exhales and goes limp in grand, twitching forgettable three before going still. ⟨Character 1⟩ yawns; pulls corner of the blanket close over the small warm back near him. The collar tag jingles once. He smiles in his own way.

⟨Character 1⟩: Okay then. Stay the night. The gate keeps. Out. My eyes are too tired or clever now, whatever. Goodnight, moon. Goodnight, puppy. Maybe I’ll sleep early for once.