Monday, May 4, 2009

Shadow-play

There it is again! That shadow. Oh, you intriguing, intriguing shadow! Whose art thou?!

***

It's summer in --, and what a summer! The locals tell us it's never been this hot, and that the rains used to be far more frequent.

But today is one of those glorious anomalies - rain and a cool breeze. And a moonlit night too. I am walking around the building, and making cloud-babies out of those amorphous Legos. I've seen a dragon (all Chinese and red and gold, I'd like to believe), sugar candy puffs, hearts with wings, Chucky (*shudder*), powder puffs, a kelpie, a milk carton with feet like in a video I've seen long ago (I forget which song, but I remember he meets a girl milk carton and goes to heaven, halo and all)...

A brief interlude with the music in my ears and coffee, and I'm almost home. I look up, and the clouds-babies have all been shooed to bed, and the stars are out partying, and a freckled half-moon. It's impossible to ignore their frolic; I'm an ardent fan. I'm staring quite unabashedly, and lo! there's a shadow over the moon!

I'm tempted, conditioned as we all are, to dismiss it as a chopper out on a joyride, but it moved too quickly for that. I use the old technique of watching, but not quite looking for, and there it is again! It's slender, like a cross; both vertical and horizontal, and gone before I can focus on it. Like a speckle: there, but not quite.

Maybe it was an insect flying in front of my eyes, and by some weird law of science, it felt as if it were far away. It's a plausible explanation. Or maybe it was an asteroid speeding.

But I've decided it was a witch - out, perhaps, because she's happy about the weather, and wants to make the best of it, like all of us. Or she could be the boogeyman to the cloud-babies. Maybe there's a coven tonight, but wait, aren't they on full moon nights?! She could be out on a secret mission, spying for the Queen of her Clan. Or on a secret rendezvous with a lover who's not a wizard. Or maybe it's just her shadow, out while she's brewing her secret potions in the dark of night, just to get away for a while from work. Or maybe, just maybe, she engineered the weather. I'm glad she did, if she did.

So what if it's only a half-moon night? Even witches must have their breathing space.

4 comments:

Bonnie Lad O' Kilmarnock said...

And (so-called) monsters too. Maybe it’s good ol’ Nessie, out on a midnight jaunt away from the Highlands.

Maybe it’s the Cow Who Jumped Over the Moon, but didn’t quite.

Maybe it’s a Mr. Seervai, who got his behind kicked and was careering towards Pluto when you saw him superimposed on the moon. The second time you saw him is explained by the fact that he was probably travelling at < 2.37 km/s and is now a satellite, bless the moon.
Come to think of it, I did hear a distant howl of pain at around twelve.

Check for him again, will you?

Ashwini said...

too profound a thought... i wonder if i got the substance right...

but still, it couldn't be better than this piece of work you have written!

now i think i'll have to give the moon and the weather around me a second look... :)

B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L.....

Radhika Chitkara said...

i lowe it!
it's so playful and innocently honestly cute!

parivrajak said...

@ the lad:

Witch. It's a witch, I say. Poof.


@ wini:

*blushes*


@ the goddess (right. :P)

Aw. Fank you. iLou, too.