By Rue W Lam 2002
©2002 R.Lam
There once was a kind woman. She lived beside a beautiful lake. The sun rays shone down on the lake, in the day. The moon rays shone down on the lake, by night. Sometimes the the moon was new so the light at night was "feeble". The little goblins liked that because they feared if they stepped into a brighter light that they would perceived as ugly. But they liked company and hated to be alone so they devised every manner of elaborate rituals to try to stop the moon from becoming full because on that night any goblin who didn't hide, disappeared the next day. But the moon would wax full and no attempt to stop it's course ever succeeded. And every moon month when the moon became full it shone upon the lake like the sun, only muted and sweet and less painful. Then each goblin who had not found a hiding place was transformed and infused with total confidence and stayed up all night having a little party until Eoa brought the dawn. Then they drank in their first rays of sunlight. But it was not painful and they were sure they deserved it. Then they looked around and for the first time saw the beautiful, shimmering, dragonflies darting over the lake. Here they lived in thick swarms! Dragonflies of every type and color!! Water birds of the same! Little lizards and chameleons in the bushes and the palms, peeking out from Everywhere! There was a fountain in the middle of the lake that added droplets to the air as thick as swarms of gnats.
The woman could sit for hours transfixed by the beauty of this place. Night or day. Didn't matter. She loved it when the turtles came up and ate bread from her hand like the ducks. There was a pattern of life and death there. One thing fed on the other but there were also ferocious storms with lightning and thunder in which the kind woman participated and that had made her immortal. There was usually a "being" who met her there and it was bliss. So it didn't matter how long she remained transfixed.
One day on which nothing particularly out of the ordinary was happening. The woman noticed that the water birds had become so bold as she sat so still and for so long, that they were actually leaving the lake and coming up to the very door of her house and eating all the lizards and chameleons there. "This won't do", she said getting up and stretching.
She walked to the edge of the lake and gathered some mud. She potted some pots and placed them on both sides of the pathway to her door. She planted some trees in the pots, of all kinds of fruits. This way the project had something in it for her too. Soon all the lizards and chameleons had a Good place to hide when the water birds came after them. The goblins had excellent hiding places too on the nights of the rising moons. The woman sat back down then and enjoyed watching the "little ones" play amongst the fruit trees and the pots.
The end