Elephant Gerald

What A Little Moonlight Will Do, Part II

Billie Goat Holiday was in her bedroom clip-clopping back and forth between her door and the window by her bed. Every time she got to the window she would open the blinds ever so slightly, peek out, and then shut them quickly.

“I am not afraid of the dark…I am not afraid of the dark…I am not…”

“Get to sleep now, baby!” her mother called from behind the closed door.

“Alright, goodnight, Mama!” Billie tried to call out in a calm voice. She shut her light off and went one more time to the window. “Oooooh, it’s dark. That is one little moon out there. It’s not shedding any light that I can see. Miss Kitty says there are no ghosts, no witch doctors, and no ghouls, but how can she tell when it’s so dark?!”

Billie closed the blinds tightly and ran to her bed, pulling the covers up over her face.

A few days later, Billie met everyone at the fishing hole by Miss Kitty’s Playce. Elephant Gerald, Django, and Buddy were on the bank of the river with their fishing poles. John Cole Crane was standing in the middle of the river, intently waiting for a fish to come by.

“Whoo-hooooo!” yelled Gerald, reeling in his fourth fish of the morning. He quickly released it back in so it wouldn’t be out of the water too long.

“Well, that’s just not fair, Gerald!” said John. “Stop hoggin’ all the fish. They’re not even getting to me.”

“That’s because you can’t stop talking,” said Buddy. “You’re scaring them all away from my bait, too!”

“Alright already,” said John. After a long pause he couldn’t stay quiet. “But I’m gonna get the next one…

“Here’s one comin’ right toward me…

“Ya’ll stay away from my fish, now…

Buddy rolled his eyes.

“Watch how us cranes do it…” As the fish approached, John bent down to catch it. Suddenly the fish jumped out of the water, spun around and slapped its tail back and forth on John’s beak. “Squaaaawwwwwwk!” John yelled in disbelief. The fish dove back in the water. Before speeding away, he stuck his head up and spit a fountain of water at John.  “Awwww, me and my big beak!”

“Will you shush?” whispered Django as he felt a tug on his line. But in an instant, that fish was gone too. “Colecrane, you made me lose my fish!”

“I made you…I made you…UGH!” John marched out of the water and stomped up the bank of the river. Billie thought the whole scene was quite funny and started to giggle. When Django’s fish jumped up out of the water right where John had stood, Gerald and Buddy could no longer hold it and started laughing with Billie.

“Laughing at my expense, I see,” John grumbled sitting down on the grass. That made them giggle even louder until Django burst out laughing and rolled on his back, shaking the ground around them.

John started to smile, but pretended he was still angry. “Ya’ll just be quiet! Now, are we still practicing for the full moon party this afternoon?”

“Well yeah!” said Buddy drumming his wings in the air. “I’m as excited as a junebug in May for the full moon party!”

“I have the whole set list of songs done for us already,” said Gerald.

“And Miss Kitty said we can have a rehearsal the afternoon of the party, before we play in front of all those people!” said Django strumming an invisible guitar.

“Billie, can you just come to the rehearsals?” asked Gerald. “I mean, just in case you can make it to the party?”

Billie suddenly became uncomfortable and wished they were still talking about fish. “Uhmm, sure Gerald. I mean, my mama will let me come to the rehearsals and all, but she won’t let me stay too long.”

“Aww, did your mama say you can’t sing at the full moon party?” said Django, feeling sorry for her.

“She, uh, I mean, I’m not sure she’ll be able to come with me that night, so I don’t think I can go.” Billie felt bad about blaming it on her mother, but she just couldn’t tell them her secret fear. She felt her face get red from embarrassment.

“Well you don’t worry about it, Billie,” said John, trying to make her feel better. “It’ll be great to have you at rehearsals!”

Gerald was starting to suspect that the full moon party had nothing to do with Billie’s mama.

“Hey, have ya’ll been watching that moon?” said Gerald. “First there was no moon like Miss Kitty said, then it was a little sliver of a moon. And last night it was a quarter moon. Did you see it?”

“Uh-huh,” said Billie, looking down at her feet. She now had the same routine every night of peeking out the blinds in her bedroom to see the moon changing then jumping in her bed and covering her head.

“It will be a half moon soon,” said Django. “It’s gonna look like a half-eaten powdery beignet. Then I’ll just want to climb a ladder and go eat it.” Django’s big stomach gurgled loudly.

“It’s almost like the moon is our clock every month,” said Buddy smartly. “Like the hands keep moving around on a clock, the light keeps moving on the moon until it’s a big ol’ circle. Then it winds down again until you can’t see it anymore.”

“Yeah?” said Billie, relaxing a little.

“Yeah,” said Gerald. “And each night you see the moon light up the earth a little more, until it’s full. Sometimes the full moon is so bright it’s like the sun is out at night.”

Buddy took two sticks off the ground and drummed on a tree to the perfect beat of a clock: tick-tock-tick-tock-tickity-tockity-tick-tock.

Django bent a branch and tied four reeds to it until they were tight and plucked it like a bass, picking up Buddy’s beat. Gerald blew his horn in short staccato notes. John held the tip of his wing in a small circle making a saxophone noise through his bill.

As Buddy was drumming on the tree he began to sing:

Tick tock tick tock

Follow a month of the moon clock

Tick tock tick tock

The more time goes the brighter it glows

Tick tock tick tock

It waxes as it’s getting grand

Tick tock tick tock

Light moving like a clock hand

There’s a new moon, sliver moon

Quarter moon, half moon

Waiting for that full moon

Blue moon, bright moon

Harvest moon, silver moon

That big old moon is coming soon

(As Billie was listening, she was imagining going to her window each night and staring at the growing moon, with two hands of a clock, getting bigger and brighter.)

Tick tock tick tock

The full moon’s now big and bright

Tick tock tick tock

The earth is lit by a giant light

Tick tock tick tock

The clock is waning down

Tick tock tick tock

‘Til all the light is gone

There’s a new moon, sliver moon

Quarter moon, half moon

Waiting for that full moon

Blue moon, bright moon

Harvest moon, silver moon

That big old moon is coming soon

When Buddy finished singing, they all turned to Billie.

“You see?” Buddy said. “The night isn’t about darkness, or bad things coming out. It’s about the magic of the moon!”

“I guess so,” said Billie.

“Well then, let’s get back to fishing,” said Gerald. “Maybe we can catch Big Ike for John.”

“Aw, I’m tired of fishing in the water,” John said. “Can I use your pole, Gerald?”

“Sure,” said Gerald. “Maybe you can get another fish to wave to you, too!”

“Oh very funny, Gerald.”

When they all settled down to fish again, Billie was singing the Tick-Tock song in her head. She suddenly realized that maybe her friends figured out she was afraid of the dark. Maybe they were just trying to help and it wasn’t something for her to be ashamed of after all.

Join us next week for Part III, and don't forget to be watching that moon!