Being Mommy

Cecilia, Grandpa, and Ty woke at Grandpa’s house. Grandpa put their magic shoes and Ty’s magic belt safely in the closet, and Cecilia went home. She still wished she could bring Ty home with her, but she didn’t want her parents to see him so she didn’t try to convince Grandpa to change his mind about that.

The next morning Cecilia was up bright and early. She showered, dressed, and brushed her teeth just as fast as she could. She hopped to the kitchen table and ate her breakfast with a smile on her face.

She was happy because she knew she was going to see Grandpa and Ty again this morning. She couldn’t wait to visit another land in Rettel!

When breakfast was finished, Cecilia rode her bike to Grandpa’s house. When he opened the door she gave Grandpa a big hug, then sat down and talked with Ty for a few minutes, had a cup of cocoa, put on her magic shoes, and layed down on the couch again to take a nap.

When she awoke from her nap, she was in a beautiful land. The first thing she noticed was the ground. It seemed to be covered in huge puffs of cottonballs! But unlike regular cotton balls, these were all different colors. There were pink puffs, green puffs, blue, yellow, red, purple, orange… every color she could think of was there! The sky was a pale green, without a single cloud.

When she sat up, Ty, who had fallen asleep snuggled into her arm, flitted up above her and smiled. “This is a most amazing place, don’t you think?” Ty asked her.

“It’s so beautiful! Look at all the colors! And what are these things on the ground? They look like big puffs of cotton!” Cecilia exclaimed.

The noise woke Grandpa, who had been sleeping on a big blue puff of cotton.  He sat up, smiled, and said “Do you like it sweetie? There’s no grass here, just this cotton stuff to walk on.  Stand up and try walking.”

Cecilia got up and took a step. The cotton was bouncy! It felt like she was jumping on her bed. “Oh Grandpa, it’s wonderful!” she said.

“Step on a pink one,” Grandpa instructed her. She looked down and found a pink one just to her right side. She stepped sideways onto it, and when she did, she heard a sound in the sky. It was a small twinkling sound, like someone sprinkling stardust into the wind. She tested it out, jumping straight up into the air and back down onto the pink puff. The same little twinkling sound swirled across the air.

Delighted with the sound, she kept on jumping for a minute, then laughed. Ty was flying all around the area, looking for the source of the sound.

“You won’t find it, my friend,” Grandpa said to Ty, “it just comes from the sky.”

Ty looked over at him, nodded his head, and flew down, landing on Cecilia’s shoulder. “Anyone hungry?” he asked.

Cecilia laughed. Ty was always hungry!

“Very hungry,” Grandpa said. “Let’s get going then!”

Grandpa led them across the field of puffballs. Every now and then he or Cecilia would step on a pink puff and send a twinkling through the breeze. They had woken at the bottom of a small hill, and after a few minutes, they reached the top. At the bottom of the other side, the familiar circle hovering just above the ground came into view. This time the circle was made of little pink puffballs, about the size of the cotton balls Cecilia had seen in a bag under her mother’s bathroom sink.

When they reached the circle, Ty flew up next to one of the floating balls and gave it a little tap with the tip of his tail. A twinkle, even softer than the sound the big puff balls made, came down from the sky. Ty smiled at Cecilia and she smiled back at him.

Grandpa helped Cecilia through the “front door”, then crossed the circle himself just as Ty was flying through. This side of the circle had the same big colored puff balls on the ground, but there were other things here as well.

Huge trees, so tall that Cecilia could not see the tops of them, stood here and there across the land. Their bark was bright yellow, and their leaves pale blue. She thought they might be the most cheerful looking trees she had ever seen!

She wondered if the leaves were ticklish. But because the trees were so tall, she could not even reach the bottom branches to try to touch the leaves.

“Grandpa, could you lift me up so I can see if the leaves are ticklish?” she asked.

“Oh, I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Grandpa said. “Because they are so high, the leaves aren’t used to being touched, and because they aren’t used to being touched, they are VERY ticklish! And if you tickled one, it might shake so hard it could knock down a melodymonkey.”

“Melodymonkey? What’s a melodymonkey?” Cecilia asked.

“Wait just a few more minutes and you’ll find out!” Grandpa said with a grin. Ty looked over at Cecilia with excitement. Everything here was new to him too!

He looked over at Grandpa and asked “Do these melodymonkeys have food, Milton?”

Grandpa laughed and answered “Of course! Making music works up quite an appetite.”

“Ooh, music?!” Cecilia exclaimed. “This is going to be so much fun!”

They walked on for a few more minutes, through the huge trees, until they saw a big box on the ground with ropes leading up into the trees. The box had no top, but a small door on the side. Grandpa opened the door for Cecilia and motioned for her to get in the box.

After she stepped inside the box, Grandpa joined her. Ty was sitting on Cecilia’s shoulder again, wondering how long it would be until they could eat.

There was a small crank on the side of the box, and Grandpa started to turn the crank. As he did, the box lifted up off the ground and began to rise up into the trees. “Remember, don’t try to tickle the leaves!” he said with a laugh.

As the box got higher and higher into the trees, she looked over the edge. They were so high that she couldn’t see the ground anymore! She thought to herself that she should probably be scared, but for some reason she wasn’t. Every land she had been in so far seemed to bring her peace and happiness, and she had no reason to think this land would be any different.

“Don’t worry, honey,” Grandpa said as he noticed where she was looking, “even if you were to fall from these trees, you would only bounce when you landed on the puffballs. As a matter of fact, it’s quite fun! Maybe you can try it with me someday.”

Cecilia looked up and noticed a platform above them. As Grandpa continued to turn the crank, the box finally came to rest right at the end of it. The platform was the same light blue as the leaves, and formed a path with railings on each side spreading out to the trees. She looked around closely and realized that there were paths all over up here! She could easily walk from tree to tree without any problems if she wanted to.

She looked out past the tops of the trees at the colored puff ball mountains in the distance, and saw a bright pink sun peeking over the mountains.

“Perfect timing!” Grandpa said joyfully. “Just enough time for introductions, a quick bite to eat, and then we can sit back and listen!”

“Eat, now that sounds good to me!” Ty said laughing. Cecilia laughed too. Ty snuggled into her neck and she laid her hand softly across his back.

Just then a small dark blue animal swooped across some branches of the tree next to them, landing at their feet. It looked like a spider monkey except for the dark blue color. “Milton, wow! It’s been so long! How are you?” the little monkey asked Grandpa.

“Sonny, it has been too long. I’m doing great! This is my granddaughter Cecilia, and my good friend Ty,” Grandpa said as the monkey leapt up onto his shoulder and hugged him. Grandpa smiled, hugging him back.

“Cecilia, Ty, so nice to meet you both!” the monkey said. “As Milton said, my name is Sonny, this beautiful land I live in is called Corsilon, and I am a melodymonkey! We make music that brings joy to all the lands of Rettel, even though they don’t hear it. The happiness flows out of the notes and through the wind and off to distant lands, helping to keep each place peaceful and harmonious!”

At that moment another little monkey, this one dark pink, jumped onto the platform. “Now wait a minute, silly! I take care of the harmony!” the second monkey said to Sonny with a giggle.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right, Kelsey.” Sonny said with a smile. “Look who’s back!” Kelsely looked up at Grandpa, her eyes got wide, and she immediately jumped up onto his other shoulder and gave him a big hug.

“Well hello to you too Kelsey!” Grandpa said laughing. “Still making music with your brother I see.”

“Always!” Kelsey exclaimed gleefully. “And it’s almost time too!”

Ty cleared his throat, looking at Grandpa.

“Cecilia, Ty, this is Kelsey, Sonny’s sister. She’s a harmonymonkey.” Grandpa said. “Kelsey, this is my friend Ty and my granddaughter Cecilia.”

Kelsey jumped from Grandpa’s shoulder over to Cecilia’s shoulder in one jump and gave her a big squeeze. Cecilia smiled. Kelsey was so soft and warm and smelled of berries.

Berries! Ty was hungry!

“Kelsey, Sonny, do you happen to have anything to eat?” Cecilia politely asked. Ty perked up at the mention of food.

“Oh, yes, we sure do,” Sonny said. “We get quite hungry up here during music time. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the branches of the trees up here have blueberries on them. They are quite tasty, please eat your fill.”

Cecilia walked across the platform to the branches of a tree. In between the light blue leaves were bunches of light blue berries. She picked a few and popped them into her mouth. They were sweet and light and tasted like a combination of every yummy berry she had ever eaten! She was suddenly very hungry, so she continued eating as she handed Ty little bunches of the berries while he sat on her shoulder munching happily.

While Grandpa talked with the little monkeys, Cecilia sat down on the light blue platform, eating berries with Ty.

“These are quite tasty, don’t you think?” asked Cecilia.

“Oh yes, quite!” Ty answered back.

Cecilia looked down at the little dragon-fly on her knee. He was so much fun to have around. He always made her laugh, with his silly flying acrobatics and his confused smiles and his constant hunger. How a tiny little thing could be so hungry all the time was a mystery to her.

“Ty,” Cecilia said, “are you glad that you ended up here with me, visiting all these lands?” She wanted to make sure he was having as good a time as she was.

Ty looked up at her in surprise. “My sweet girl, there is no place I would rather be!” he said with a smile. Cecilia smiled back.

Sonny jumped over to where they were sitting. “It’s time!” he cried, and hurried them back over to where Grandpa was standing. “If you walk over to that tree,” he said, pointing off to the left, “and turn up to that higher platform, there are some places to relax.”

Cecilia followed Grandpa over to the raised platform to find a few yellow puff balls there. She climbed up onto one and sat down. Ty flew over and landed on her knee. Grandpa sat on a puff ball next to hers.

“Look over at the sun,” Grandpa said to her.

She looked. The pink sun was just going down over the edge of the mountain far away. As the last of it sank down behind the top edge, sudden movement in the trees caught her attention. All of the berries here at the top of the trees suddenly bloomed with flowers!

It was the most amazing thing she had ever seen. There were so many flowers that she couldn’t even see the leaves anymore! The flowers were blue, but darker than the leaves and platforms and berries. The petals were a dark creamy blue with a bright orange, thin stripe through the center of each. The stripe sparkled in the night sky.

Just as she had begun to take in the beautiful flowers, a single musical note slowly began to take hold of the sky. It started out almost too soft to hear, then gradually got just a little louder until it was a gentle, soothing tone, flowing through the air. The flowers didn’t move as the note began, and continued that way as another note replaced the first one, higher and sweet,  like the berries they had just eaten.

Then another note replaced that one, and another, and another, until a gentle melody filled the night.

Just as Cecilia thought she could never hear anything sweeter, a second set of notes wove their way into the song. Sometimes lower than the original melody, sometimes higher, but always this new set went along perfectly.

“That,” Grandpa said, “is Kelsey, making the harmony to Sonny’s melody!”

Cecilia realized she was smiling so bright that her face almost hurt!

“Oh Grandpa, it’s the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard!” she said. Tears filled her eyes, but not tears of sadness, these were tears of joy. She was moved deep down into her heart by the beautiful notes that the two monkeys played.

“Now you can see how this land helps to uplift the spirits of all the creatures in Rettel. Each night they play a new song, and it flows out into all of the lands, and fills the hearts of everyone who lives in them,” Grandpa explained.

Ty was flying through the air, swaying to the music so gracefully. His eyes weren’t even open. He just floated in front of Cecilia, this way and that, sighing once in awhile at the beauty he heard.

Cecilia and Grandpa and Ty stayed there for the next few hours, amazed at the lovely song they heard, their hearts and souls filled with peace and happiness.