The Moonbeams

by Emily Bliss

  Sure enough, just ahead, Cressida saw several rows of stone benches lined up in front of a purple stage made of wood and stone. A yellow banner, mounted across the front of the stage, read, “THE MOONBEAMS” in black block letters. Six sand dunes and four flowering cacti stood on one side of the stage, their eyes wide with worry and their mouths bent in frowns. Scattered all over the stage were sheets of paper and music stands that looked as though they had toppled over.

  “Why is the sheet music all over the place?” Sunbeam asked, sounding nervous. “And what on earth happened to the music stands?”

  “That’s awfully strange,” Moon said. “This morning, we left the music stands set up for the concert and the sheet music in a neat stack with the cacti.”

  Sunbeam grimaced and galloped ahead. She leaped onto the stage and lowered her head to examine one of the pieces of paper. She looked at another. And then another. Then she turned, jumped off the stage, and galloped back to Moon and Cressida. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

  “What’s wrong?” Moon asked. “Is it just that the wind made a mess? Cressida has hands. I’m sure she can quickly pick up the stands and organize the sheet music.”

  “The mess is the least of our worries,” Sunbeam said. “All the notes are missing.”

  “The notes are missing?” Moon asked, sounding confused.

  “Yes,” Sunbeam said. “Come look.”

  Moon and Cressida rushed after Sunbeam to the scattered sheet music. Up on the stage, Cressida kneeled down and picked up a paper that said, “Raccoons’ Part,” across the top. She saw the black horizontal lines that formed the staff for the treble clef—those were the high sounds—and the bass clef—the low sounds.

  But just as Sunbeam said, the notes—the black dots on the lines that told singers what to sing and musicians what to play—were gone!

  Cressida picked up another paper that said “Frogs’ Part” across the top. There were no notes. She picked up a paper that said “Unicorns’ Part” across the top. No notes. There were also no notes on the pages that said “Dunes’ Part,” “Cacti’s Part,” and “Owls’ Part.”

  Moon furrowed her brow and bit her lip. After a few seconds, she said, “What will we do? I don’t think we can hold the concert without our sheet music. I haven’t memorized my part. And I don’t think anyone else has, either.”

  Sunbeam shook her head. “Without the notes, the raccoons won’t know what to play, and the unicorns, the cacti, and the dunes won’t know what to sing.”

  “The frogs won’t know what notes to croak and the owls won’t know what notes to hoot,” Moon said.

  Sunbeam and Moon looked at each other with panicked faces.

  “The whole concert is falling apart,” Sunbeam said.

  “We’ll have to cancel it,” Moon whispered. “We have no choice.” Her eyes filled with tears.

  Cressida looked at her unicorn friends. She could see how disappointed they felt. She felt disappointed, too—she had been even more excited to hoot with the Moonbeams than she was to sing with the Pinewood Elementary School Chorus. She took a deep breath. “Before we cancel the concert,” Cressida said, “let’s see if we can figure out what happened to the notes. Maybe there’s a way to put them back on the sheet music.”

  “It’s worth a try,” Moon said.

  Sunbeam nodded. “Good idea,” she said.

  Cressida looked over at the dunes. Danny, Denise, Darryl, Doris, Dave, and Devin stared at her with worried faces. Then she looked at the cacti. Corrine, Claude, Carl, and Callie—who Cressida had met on her last visit to the Glitter Canyon—frowned and stared at the ground.

  Cressida walked across the stage so she was standing next to them. “Hello,” she said.

  “Hello,” the cacti and the dunes said, their voices sad and low.

  “Sorry to sound so glum,” Danny said.

  “We’re glad to see you,” Doris added.

  “Really, we are,” Carl said.

  “It’s just that the sheet music is ruined,” Corrine said.

  “And we were excited for the concert,” Callie said.

  “The best day ever is turning into the worst,” Devin finished.

  “I completely understand you feel sad and disappointed,” Cressida said. “I want to try to find the missing notes so we don’t have to cancel the concert. Do you know what happened to them?”

  Callie nodded. “I was holding the sheet music like this,” she explained, bending her arms across her body.

  “And then, it was strangest thing,” Claude said.

  “Yes,” Carl said, “there was a lot of wind. Sort of like a small tornado.”

  “It swirled and swirled,” Danny said. “It knocked over all the music stands.”

  “And then there was thunder and lightning,” Doris explained.

  “The sheet music scattered all over the stage,” Denise said.

  “But the weirdest part,” Callie said, “was that the notes turned into crickets and sprang off the pages.”

  The four cacti and the six dunes nodded.

  “Crickets?” Moon, Sunbeam, and Cressida all said at once.

  “Crickets,” Corrine, Claude, Carl, Callie, Danny, Denise, Darryl, Doris, Dave, and Devin replied.

  “Interesting,” Cressida said.

  “They hopped right on top of us,” Denise said.

  “It tickled,” Darryl added, chortling.

  “There were hundreds of them,” Dave said. “I’ve never seen so many crickets.”

  “Do you know where they are now?” Cressida asked.

  “No idea,” Doris said.

  “All we know is they’re not here any more,” Callie added, and the other cacti nodded.

  Cressida heard Sunbeam sniffle.

  Moon whispered, “How in the world are we going to find a few hundred crickets? They’re tiny. They could be anywhere!”

  Cressida closed her eyes and tried to come up with a plan. It was hard to think clearly and creatively with four cacti, six dunes, and two unicorns staring at her. But then, suddenly, she remembered the fact Corey had shared with her earlier that afternoon: crickets were mostly silent during the day, but they chirped at night.

  “I have an idea to find the crickets!” Cressida said, jumping from one foot to the other. “Moon, can you make the Glitter Canyon pitch black?”

  “Sure,” Moon said, sounding confused, “though I think it’s usually even harder to find anything in the dark. Especially something as small as a bug.”

  “I don’t know if my idea will work,” Cressida said. “But let’s just try it.”

  Moon shrugged and nodded. The opal on her yellow ribbon necklace shimmered, and sparkling light poured from her horn. Suddenly, the Glitter Canyon was pitch black.

  “How on earth will this help us?” Sunbeam said.

  “Let’s all just listen for a few seconds and see what happens,” Cressida said.

  “Listen for what?” Sunbeam asked.

  But before Cressida could respond, they heard the sound of chirping.

  “The crickets!” Sunbeam said, trotting in an excited circle. “I hear them!”

  “Follow that sound!” Moon said, rearing up and whinnying.

  Cressida pulled her magic glasses from her pocket and put them on. She kneeled down and gathered all the pages of noteless sheet music into a neat stack and tucked it under her arm. Then she, Sunbeam, and Moon jumped off the stage and began to run toward the chirping. They rushed along a stretch of sand, around patches of wildflowers, and behind a cluster of giant, plum-colored rocks. That’s when Cressida saw, right before her eyes, hundreds of chirping crickets with bubbles floating up from their wings.

  For a few seconds, Cressida, Moon, and Sunbeam watched and listened. As the crickets chirped and chirped, more and more bubbles rose up into the air. And then, suddenly, Cressida heard something familiar in the chirping, though she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was.

  Moon whispered, “When they started, the crick
ets were chirping the frogs’ part in our concert. Now they’re chirping the unicorns’ part.”

  Cressida sucked in her breath. That was it! The crickets were chirping the same song she’d heard the unicorns singing when she arrived at Spiral Palace.

  Sunbeam nodded. They listened for a few more seconds, and she added, “Now they’re chirping the raccoons’ part.”

  For a moment, Sunbeam and Moon looked excited. But then Moon’s face fell. “It’s great that we found the crickets. But what do we do now?” she asked. “We can’t exactly put them on our sheet music.”

  Sunbeam sighed. “This is still a complete disaster,” she said.

  Just then, a bubble floated over to Sunbeam and landed on her nose. For a moment, it quivered. And then it popped. To Cressida’s surprise, on the tip of Sunbeam’s nose, right where the bubble had been, was a black dot with a straight tail.

  “What is that?” Sunbeam asked, crossing her eyes to look at it. She scrunched up her nose.

  “I think,” Cressida said, feeling excited, “it’s a note!”

  Sunbeam and Moon looked at each other. “You mean the notes are trapped in the bubbles?” Sunbeam asked.

  “Maybe,” Cressida said. “Let me check to be sure.” She walked closer to the crickets. A bubble floated up toward her face. She poked it with her index finger. The bubble popped, and a note appeared on her fingernail. She poked another bubble, this time with her pinky finger. Again, a note appeared on her fingernail. Cressida popped bubbles with her thumb, her middle finger, and her ring finger so she had a note on each fingernail. Then, she skipped over to Sunbeam and Moon. “There are definitely notes inside the bubbles,” she said, and she held up her hand so the unicorns could see her decorated fingernails.

  Moon smiled, but her eyes were still dark with worry. “That’s good news,” she said slowly, “but how will we get them back on the sheet music?”

  Sunbeam bit her lip. “I’m thinking and thinking, but I don’t have any ideas.”

  “I’m not ready to give up yet,” Cressida said. For a few seconds, she listened to the chirping and watched the bubbles lifting up into the air and vanishing into the pitch black canyon. “I’m going to try something,” she said slowly. She put the stack of sheet music down in the sand and grabbed just the top page, which said, “Unicorns’ Part.” She walked as close as she could get to the crickets without accidentally stepping on one. Bubbles floated all around her, and with one hand she held the paper right under a bubble drifting straight for her nose. With the other hand, she popped the bubble quickly, pulling her finger back as soon as it burst.

  This time, instead of landing on her fingernail, the note fluttered down to the page of sheet music and settled onto the black horizontal lines. Cressida popped five more bubbles in exactly the same way. Then, she ran back to Moon and Sunbeam and held the paper so they could see it. “Are these six notes in the right places?” she asked.

  The unicorns studied the page for a few seconds, humming softly together.

  “Yes!” Sunbeam said, rearing up and dancing in a circle. “Those are the first six notes of our part.”

  “Good work,” Moon said, grinning. Then she paused. “But how can we pop enough bubbles before the concert? There are hundred of notes we still need to get back on the sheet music.”

  Sunbeam held up a golden hoof and frowned. “And Moon and I won’t be much help since we don’t have fingers.”

  Cressida nodded. And then she jumped up and down. “I know what to do!” she said. “Moon, would it be possible to go get the owl family?”

  “Yes,” Moon said. “I bet they’re already in the Glitter Canyon.”

  Moon galloped back toward the stage. After a few minutes, she returned with Otto and Opal, who were pushing two triple strollers that had nests instead of seats. Inside one sat Oliver, Orly, and Odetta. And inside the other stroller sat Owen, Orion, and Olivia. As soon as the owl chicks saw Cressida, they leaped from the strollers and rushed over to her.

  Cressida kneeled down so she could look right at the owl chicks. “I have a very important job for you. Would you like to help us save the Moonbeams concert?”

  “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Oliver, Owen, Orion, Odetta, Olivia, and Orly hooted.

  “What I’m going to need you to do— ” Cressida began, but the owl chicks were so loud and excited they couldn’t hear her.

  Cressida smiled. And then she said, “Listening ears! Listening ears, little owls!”

  The owl chicks quieted down, though Orion and Odetta kept hopping. And Orly started flapping her wings. Cressida decided she had better tell them what to do quickly, before they all started hooting again.

  “Good listening,” Cressida said. “I’m going to put these pages down on the ground,” she said, grabbing the stack of sheet music and lining up the pages on the sandy canyon floor, right next to the crickets. The owl chicks began to hoot again. “Listening ears!” Cressida called out. “What I need you to do is to pop all the bubbles you see, as fast as you can.”

  “Bubbles! Bubbles! Bubbles!” Oliver, Owen, Orion, Odetta, Olivia, and Orly hooted, hopping and flapping their wings and doing somersaults in the air.

  And then, in a frenzy of jumping, flipping, and pecking, they popped the bubbles so quickly that all Cressida could see was a blur of silver feathers. Cressida heard the crickets chirp what she remembered Moon and Sunbeam had said were the frogs’ part, the owls’ part, the raccoons’ part, the dunes’ part, the cacti’s part, and the unicorns’ part. Right before her eyes, the sheet music filled up with notes.

  “I think that’s all of it,” Sunbeam said after several minutes of the owl chicks’ bubble popping.

  Moon looked down at the sheet music. “Yes,” she said, grinning and then rearing up with joy. “You saved the Moonbeams’ concert! Thank you, Cressida!”

  “Yes! Thank you!” Sunbeam said, and she danced in a circle.

  Cressida quickly picked up the sheet music from the ground and put it in a neat stack.

  “Thank you so much for your help, little owls!” But they were having so much fun jumping, popping bubbles, and watching the notes fall down onto the glittery sand that they didn’t hear her.

  “Sunbeam, I think you can go ahead and bring back the sunlight,” Cressida said.

  Sunbeam nodded. “I think you’re right!” Her yellow sapphire shimmered. Golden light poured from her horn. And suddenly, the sun was out again in the Glitter Canyon.

  Cressida took off her glasses and put them back in her pocket. The crickets fell silent, and bubbles stopped floating from their wings. The owl chicks looked for more bubbles, and when they didn’t see any, to Cressida’s surprise, they all began to yawn and rub their eyes with their wings. With fluttering eyelids, they staggered over to the triple strollers, hopped into the nests, tucked their heads under their wings, and fell asleep.

  Otto and Opal laughed. “I think popping bubbles completely exhausted them,” Opal said.

  “This is their fourth nap today,” Otto said. “I’m sure it will be quick and they’ll wake up in time for the concert.”

  Cressida giggled at the owl chicks, who had begun to hoot-snore. Then she looked down at the sheet music. In the sunlight, she saw that sandy purple owl footprints covered the pages. She smiled and brushed them off. “I think we can go get ready for the concert now,” she said.

  Sunbeam, Moon, and Cressida hurried back to the stage. Opal and Otto, each pushing a stroller of sleeping owl chicks, followed right behind them. They found the dunes and the cacti looking worriedly at each other. A circle of Night Forest frogs sat on the stage, anxiously ballooning out their throats. Next to them, the raccoons stood with their instruments—a flarpophone, a quadruple-duple-banjinano, a trumpledumpledordion, and an octogoloctohorn—swishing their tails. And the other six unicorn princesses—Flash, Bloom, Prism, Breeze, Firefly, and Feather—were waiting, humming to themselves, and nervously tapping their hooves against the wooden stage floor. Opal and Otto lifted the stroll
ers onto the stage and parked them next to the frogs.

  “The cacti and the dunes told us what happened,” Firefly said. “Were you able to find the notes?”

  Moon nodded. “Yes. Cressida saved the Moonbeams’ concert!”

  “I had a feeling she would,” Feather said, winking at Cressida.

  “What a relief,” said Roland and Renee, two of the raccoons Cressida had met on her very first visit to the Night Forest. The other two raccoons, Ringo and Rita, began to pick up the music stands from the stage and set them up in front of the dunes, the cacti, the frogs, the unicorns, and the owls.

  As Cressida put the sheet music on the stands, she looked up to see more creatures than she could count finding seats in the rows of benches in front of the stage. There were foxes, rabbits, gnomes, dragons, mini-dragons, rainbow cats, fairies, snails, skunks, opossums, and phoenixes, all holding yellow and black tickets. They looked expectantly at the Moonbeams.

  “We almost forgot our hats,” Moon said suddenly.

  “Don’t worry,” Darryl said. “The raccoons brought them from the Night Forest and left them right here on my head.” The dune looked upward at several stacks of black glittery top hats, in all different sizes, decorated with golden suns and moons.

  “Cressida, since you have hands, might you help us with our costumes?” Breeze asked.

  “Absolutely,” Cressida said. She walked over to Darryl and picked up the hats. She put the smallest ones on the frogs and on the owl chicks, who had just woken up, hopped out of their strollers, and taken their places in a line in front of their parents. She put the medium-size hats on Opal, Otto, the raccoons, the cacti, and the unicorns. And she put the biggest hats on the dunes. Then, to her surprise, she saw one more hat sitting on a rock next to the cacti. Cressida jumped off the stage, walked over to it, and picked it up. To her delight and surprise, it had a tag on it that said, “Dear Cressida, Here is a hat, just for you! Thank you for saving the Moonbeams’ concert. Love, Ernest.”