by Cameron Jace
“If you have wings, and can fly, be my guest,” he signaled at the edge of the beanstalk. He squeezed a disobeying snake so it would let him light up the pumpkin.
“Ok,” I said and threatened to walk to the edge.
“Wait!” he said. “I’m sorry. I was just joking. I’d really like you to stay.”
“Really?” I found myself smiling wider and couldn’t help it.
“Really,” He smiled. “All the other girls I met in this kingdom are… well… monsters. You’re the first one that isn’t. Well, a bit weird, but not a monster. Weird is good. So please stay.”
“Really?” I was speechless I couldn’t think of any other word to say.
“If you’re going to repeat that word, then you better need this,” Jack pulled out a dictionary from his Sack of Wonders and threw it next to me. “However, I mean it. I want you stay,” he smiled again. “But just ease up with the light. That’s really too much. We don’t want to attract… well, I have a nasty giant living somewhere in my kingdom. He doesn’t always appear but I don’t want to fight him now.”
“Oh, sorry,” I put a hand on my mouth hidden behind the cloak, and let out short laugh. “I just got excited.” If I had parents, maybe they would have taught me how to control my light when I met a boy I liked.
“Yeah,” He mused. “I do get excited, too. Sadly, I don’t shine like you. How do you even do that? Are you hiding a gas lamp under that cloak?”
“No,” I furrowed my brows. This was my light, not a gas lamp!
“Are you an enchanted frog that lights up and doesn’t croak?”
“Why a frog?”
“I don’t know,” Jack said, waving his hand. “Frogs are helpless. Everyone in the kingdom has been bewitching them, turning them into princes and princesses. The poor creature is being played with and humiliated when all he wanted in life was to croak us out of our sleep every night.”
I omitted a laugh again. “No, I am not an enchanted frog underneath. Didn’t we agree you won’t ask anymore about me?”
“Alright,” he said and then slapped the snake playfully on its mouth. “Didn’t you hear the weird-bright-princess say no more asking about her? Hah!”
The poor snake made a grumpy face. It was feeling exhausted just by holding the pumpkin, and Jack’s squeezing didn’t make it any better.
“Now, sit down, princess,” he signaled me to sit on the shell of a turtle. “This is my best chair. It does move every now and then though, so be careful.”
“You’re awful,” I said. “You’re using the poor thing as a chair?”
“Will it be too woody?” Jack wondered, climbing up a hammock next to the turtle. “I could cover it with sheep skin if you like.”
“Unbelievable,” I shook my head and sat on the ground next to the chair—I mean turtle.
“What did I say? I was just trying to show some hospitality,” He took off his hat and put it on his chest as he lay back in the hammock. “Nothing like a little rocking back and forth at the end of the day,” he sighed, “I’ve been working very hard. You sure you’re comfortable down there on the ground?”
“I am,” I said, staring at the dark sky above. As much as I enjoyed myself with Jack here, I should have been up there. This was irresponsible of me. The kingdom needed my light, and I was not allowed tardiness. If the sun rose before I got up there, I would die, and the world would live in perpetual darkness.
“Moonless night, huh?” Jack mused, looking up and breaking the silence.
“Yeah,” I nodded, feeling ashamed I wasn’t up there now.
“I really miss the moonlight,” Jack said casually.
“Really?” This time I controlled my bright light and kept it hidden under the cloak, but I coulnd’t control my really, though.
“Don’t you like it?” he looked back at me.
“I do,” I shrugged. “What do you like about it?”
“Everything,” he said. “It’s so cool, just chilling up there on its own, oblivious of the crazy life we have down here in the kingdom. It’s like a god or something. It is also like clockwork, comes and leaves in time and does its job, it seems invincible to me. Would you dare fly up there and get to it?”
“But don’t you think it’s lonely?” I asked.
“Why lonely? I bet it watches all the mischief in our lives and laughs, thinking, ‘You poor humans living down there, suffering and having to work hard in an unjust world.’ We must be amusing to it.”
“No, it doesn’t do that,” I petted the turtle on its back.
“It does.”
“Does not.”
“And how do you know?”
“I just do. The moon…well, she’s kind and caring.”
“She?”
“Hmm… I always knew it had to be a she.” I swallowed hard and tightened the cloak around me again.
“I always thought it was a he. Never heard about the man in the moon? Unless by ‘she’ you mean the cow. I heard there is a cow on the moon.”
Jack was suddenly getting on my nerves. How could he think that of me? “The moon is no cow!”
“I didn’t say the moon was a cow,” Jack said. “And why are you so upset about that? Ah. I know. Girls love the moon, the full moon.”
“They do?” I raised an eyebrow. “Who else loves me—the moon, I mean?”
“Everyone does, even werewolves. It’s a pretty amazing little ball up there, shining its light onto us at night, although it’s gone tonight. Did you ever wonder where it goes when it disappears? I mean, I was taught in school that it’s never gone. Only gray clouds conceal it sometimes.”
“It will be back. In an hour,” I said, planning on leaving Jack sooner than that.
“You sound sure of yourself,” Jack said suspiciously.
I shrugged, “Well, she – it must return. Don’t you think?”
“I sure hope so. Sometimes, when it disappears too long, I worry that Managarm ate her,” Jack said, staring up again, trying to find me—the moon—beyond the dark clouds.
“Managarm?”
“The wolf, you know, the one who was howling when we were down there,” Jack looked back at me. “You don’t know the story of Managarm, the evil wolf who chases the moon?”
“What?” I felt the blood drain from my face. Who was that wolf who seemingly likes to chases me? I hated wolves.
“Although people claim that Managarm is the wolf howling in the Black Forest in the middle of the night, I’m not so sure. But I used to hear this story from my grandmother, Madly, when I was a kid—“
“A kid? Were you a thief back then?” I couldn’t help but ask. I was curious about him.
Jack laughed and straightened up. “I stole my first coconut from a goblin when I was six. I was poor and hungry, and the goblin market has always been my favorite place for eating. Unfortunately, I gave to the first poor girl I saw. So, yes, I was a thief back then.”
“And is you grandmother called Madly?”
“Yes.”
“Can I ask why she was called that? Or was it her name?”
“To be honest, I loved her a lot, but she was also mad. She used to gather up children and tell them dark stories, mad stories, before she died. That’s where she got the name. Goblins hate her because all her stories warned children of goblins and they couldn’t lure young girls into the goblin market anymore. Can I tell you the Managarm story now? Curious, little hooded-girl.”
“Yes, but be quick,” I knew I had to go, but I couldn’t resist his charm. How was I supposed to meet him again? If I kept thinking of him tomorrow night, I wasn’t going to do my job properly.
“It’s a quick story. ‘Once upon a time, a bad wolf named Managarm, or the creature that chases the moon, was cursed with a wicked soul. He was sent by the Queen of Sorrow to devour the moon,” his expression was grim, and I knew he wanted to give me a fright. I guess he was imitating his grandmother. “Night after night, the wolf chased the moon wherever it went, trying to jump as
high as it could to snag it, but he always failed. Not because the moon was too high, but because the purity of the moon was too much for him to handle. Managarm, the wolf, decided to draw a jagged-wheeled carriage built from the bones of children kidnapped by the Boogeyman. The Queen had given the carriage to Managarm and instructed him to trap the moon inside and bring it to her. Night after night, people saw him flying high up in the sky drawing his carriage, looking like a black spot in the heavens, but no matter how close he got, he could never catch the moon.’”
“Why did the Queen of Sorrow want to catch the moon?” I found myself asking, mesmerized by the story. I wish I had someone telling me bedtime stories before the sun rose every day.
“Generally, the Queen of Sorrow wants to have everything and anything. But in this case, it was because the moon was rumored to be one of the Lost Seven the Queen was looking for,” Jack still made that creepy face.
“Stop doing that thing with your face. I’m not a child. Who are the Lost Seven?” I wondered if that story was true.
“No one knew exactly,” Jack’s face returned to normal, a little disappointed that I wasn’t scared. “Some the lost Seven will save the world. Some say that they are actually the ones that have to killed to save the world. It’s unknown so far who they are and why they are important.”
“So you don’t think the story is true?”
“I don’t know,” Jack shook his head and swung a foot protruding from edge of the hammock. “My grandmother told me a lot of crazy things. She told me I was going to fall in love with a girl who is as tasty as marmalade, for instance. She even said her name will be Marmalade. You know what marmalade is, right?”
“Of course, I do,” I lied. I had only heard night passengers say that it was something really sweet and rare, only found on the dining tables of kings and queens, and sent over from Europe.
“Even with your cloak hiding your face, you’re still a bad liar,” he said. “You have no idea what marmalade is. I have a jar in my sack if you want. Stolen from the Queen of Sorrow herself. She’s pretty fond of it.”
“No, thank you,” I said. “I don’t want to try something you stole. Please tell me more about your grandmother. Did you ever meet this Marmalade?”
“I don’t think I’d know if I did,” he laughed. “What does a girl as sweet as marmalade look like, exactly? And if I go around asking girls if their name is Marmalade, they’d laugh at me.”
At this point, I remembered Jack lying about me being the first girl he wanted to impress by taking her up to the clouds. It made me assume that he’s had a lot of adventures with girls. I could understand how he could be attractive to many girls with his quirky personality. Was it possible that all of his sweet escapades were a secret quest for finding the foretold Marmalade? I wondered.
“Grandmother just loved to tell me weird stories. She even gave me this,” Jack pulled out a necklace from his sack. It was made of small seashells, arranged together in a unique way.
“Another necklace of wonder, I assume.”
“Except that I didn’t steal this one. Grandmother really gave it to me,” he assured me.
”It looks lovely,” I said. “Why don’t you wear it?”
“And look like a fish? No, thank you. Besides, it’s too feminine for me. Grandmother suggested wearing it, though. You won’t believe what she said this necklace was for.”
“What is it for? I’m curious.”
“It’s supposed to,” Jack hesitated, “grant me a second life if I was killed,” Jack laughed, looking at the necklace. “A second life? Nonsense!”
“Does that mean that if you were killed and you were wearing it, you would come back to life?”
“Well, according to my grandmother, it was supposed to give me a new life if I were killed, but there is a catch. It should give me a new life in another form,” Jack leaned forward and whispered to me, “My grandmother claimed she used it when she was young. She told me she was a fish before she became human. Can you see why they called her Madly now?”
“A fish?” I considered. “I actually like this story. How did she become human?”
“Well, she said she died when she was fished out of the water. She was a fish, remember? The necklace supposedly saved her life by turning her into a human being. You get how this works? A new life equals a new body.”
“That’s amazing,” I stared at the necklace.
“What’s amazing?” Jack leaned back. “You don’t think my grandmother was a fish, do you?”
“Why not? Don’t you believe in magic?”
“I believed in open windows, trees I can climb, and things that help me unlock doors. That’s magic to me.”
“I think you’re wrong. I believe in what your grandmother told you. You should wear the necklace. You could have certainly used it today if the goblins had killed you.”
“And then have a second life as a what? A frog?”
“What’s your problem with frogs? And who said you’d be a frog?” I laughed. “If you had no choice but to die now, wouldn’t a second life be better than none at all?”
“No,” Jack explained. “I love me. If I’m ever given a second life after I die, I want to be me, Jack, all over again. Or how are they going to write a book about me? Besides, grandmother said that part of the enchantment is that you can’t tell anyone about your new identity.”
“How so?”
“I don’t know. That’s what she said. You know what that means? It means that you can’t tell your loved ones who you are. What’s the point in giving me a second life if the ones you love aren’t allowed to recognize you?”
“What did your grandmother say happens if the person who’s been given a second life tells about it?”
“That person dies, along with the person who was told,” Jack said. “See? It’s a curse more than a gift in my opinion.”
“Oh,” I considered. “But it’s still a second life, a second chance. Maybe you could have a second life where you aren’t a thief anymore. Maybe you could be a prince charming?” I teased Jack.
“No!” Jack said. “I hate charming princes. They’re boring, and no one wants to write about them. I’m Jack Madly. I’m a legend.”
“Whatever you say,” I couldn’t argue with him.
Jack spent the rest of the night talking. As a moon I was used to listening without really interacting that much, and Jack was a charmer. It wasn’t just that he kept telling me stories about his childhood with a boy named Peter Pan – they seemed to be close friends—, but it was how I was sure he was someone entirely different from the person he pretends to be. I saw his confidence and cockiness when he was facing the goblins, but he was someone a lot friendlier here. It was as if he felt comfortable pouring his heart out to me. I liked to think that my moonly charm was affecting him. He was having a genuine conversation with a girl hiding behind a black cloak, and what’s best of all is that he stopped asking me to show my face, and seemed to be enjoying our time together. Up here, in his personal heaven, it was hard to think of him as a thief. He was a normal boy who wore a mask of ambiguity and carelessness when he descended down to the kingdom of Sorrow. I wondered if the same thing would happen to me if I had mingled with the people of Sorrow. Would I have to wear my own mask when facing the world?
Falling in love with a boy who lived in the clouds seemed suitable. I was the moon, and this was closest I’ve come to having a boyfriend. I wouldn’t have to descend all the way down to earth to meet him. Yeah, but could I bring myself to confess my true nature?
“Jack,” I said. “I have to go.”
“What?” he blinked as if I had just woken him from a beautiful dream.
“I’d really like to stay but I have to go,” I stood up.
“Why?” He came down from the hammock. “Did I say something wrong?”
“Not at all,” I smiled behind the cloak, and wished I could show him my face, but I couldn’t. If I did, I’d have to explain what I am, and risk breakin
g the divine laws.
“Then what is it? Is it because I slapped the snake and wanted you to sit on a turtle? I stole them from the Queen of Sorrow. They are evil creatures, not like the rest of their kind. They have been created by dark wizards and I learned how to control them—“
“Jack,” I sighed. “You don’t have to explain. You didn’t say anything to upset me, but I have to be home before sunrise.”
“Usually girls need to be home before midnight,” he mumbled.
“I’m not just any girl,” I said. “And I can’t explain much. I have to go.” I said, and turned my back to him, preparing to use the vine to get down to the land. I could have ascended to my place in the sky from here, but I didn’t want him to see that. It was easier to let him think I was a normal girl who needed to walk home on foot, and then ascend from there without him seeing me.
“Wait!” he said behind my back. “Don’t you need someone to walk you home? It’s too late and the gobs might be out there.”
“I’ll be fine, Jack,” I said, although I was worried I’d run into the goblins again.
“Really? How will I be able to know you arrived home safely?”
I turned around to face him, “When you see the moon hanging back in the sky,” I said.
“What?”
“Trust me,” I interrupted him. “Once the moon is back, then I’m safe.”
Jack looked puzzled, but his eagerness to see me again prevented him from connecting the dots.
“Will I see you again?” he asked.
“I think so,” that was all I could promise. I needed to think it over alone. Was I allowed to spend time with Jack every night?
“Will you at least tell me your name?”
“Next time,” I said. “I really have to go now,” Then I finally turned around again, and took hold of the dangling vine.
“Wait!” he insisted again, and this time, he turned me around to face him. He wasn’t aware that his touch, although above the cloak, sent shivers through my bright body. “Take this,” he offered me the seashell necklace. “I will not take no for an answer. This is the only way I know for sure you will be safe alone down there.”