Hello,
Dream travelers.
And welcome to the Story Nexus.
Tonight.
I'll be reading you a story while we travel on a train across the United States.
It's an old train with sleeping compartments.
You have a very private and comfortable sleeping compartment,
And I'll be on a chair just beside you,
Reading the story.
There's nothing you need to do.
You've got the whole night in front of you.
And the relaxing,
Endless sounds of the train tracks.
Now.
Let's begin.
Our story tonight is a fairy tale.
Written by Lawrence Hausman.
And published in 1923.
It's entitled,
The Blue Moon.
Helene and Shasta were the most unremarkable and happy pair of sweethearts the world has ever gained or lost.
With them,
It had been a case of love at first sight since the day they'd tumbled into each other's arms in the same crib.
Shasta.
When he first saw her.
Didn't realize Helene was a royal princess hiding her birthright in the home of a working-class family.
Nor did Helene,
When she first saw Shasta,
See in him the baby beginnings of the most honest and good heart that ever grew out of poverty and humble roots.
From her end of their little crib,
She kicked him with her royal rosy toes.
And he kicked back from his end and laughed.
And that's how,
As you can tell,
At first sight,
They fell head over heels for one another.
Nothing could undo that,
For day by day,
Earth and sun and wind came to rub it in deeper,
And water couldn't wash it off.
So,
When they'd been seven years together,
There could be no doubt that they felt as if they'd been made for each other.
Then,
Something very big.
.
.
And very sad came to pass.
For one day,
Helene had to stop being a regular kid and become a princess once more.
Some very important grown-up people came to the woodside where she'd grown up so happily.
They caught her by the collar of her pretty pink frock and pulled her up and carried her clean away from Shasta to a place she'd never been before.
They put her into a huge estate with woods and terraces and landscaped gardens on all sides of it.
There she sat crying and pale,
Saying she wanted to be taken back to Shasta and grow up and marry him.
Even though he was still just the working-class boy he'd always been.
The people in charge of Helene in her new position.
Talked wisely,
Telling her to forget him.
Because,
They said.
The princess marrying a working-class boy can only happen once in a blue moon.
When she heard that.
Helene began to watch the moon rise every night.
Hoping some evening it might turn blue like a flower against the dusk.
Then it could shake down her wish to her like a bee out of its deep heart.
But night after night,
Silver or reddish or pale yellow lit up the place in the sky.
Years went by,
Bringing the princess no closer to her wish of making room for Shasta among the splendors of her throne.
She knew he was 5,
000 miles away.
And had only cheap shoes to walk in.
When she begged to see him just once more.
Her whole court with the utmost politeness said to her.
No.
The princess's memory sang to her of Shasta in a thousand tunes.
Like birds singing in the woods.
But it was inside the cage,
People call a crown,
That her thoughts moved.
Fluttering to get out and be free.
So time went on.
And Helene had quietly grown into sweet womanhood.
The loveliest princess who had ever shed a tear.
And all she could do for love was fill her garden with dark-eyed pansies and walk among their humble,
Upturned faces.
Which reminded her so much of her dear Shasta.
Shasta,
Who was 5,
000 miles away.
She sighed,
Watching for the blue moon to rise.
When will it come and grant my whole wish?
Looking up,
She used to wonder what happened up there.
She and Shasta had snuck into the woods together as kids and watched the little earth fairies play.
And had seen them,
When the moon was full,
Lift up their arms to it.
Maybe sending signals to far-off moon cousins.
So,
She thought to herself.
What are the fairies like up there?
And who's the greatest moon fairy of all?
The one who makes the blue moon rise.
And bring goodwill to the sad wishers of the human race.
Is it Thartolene?
The moon fairy who then opens its heart and sends down healing to the lovers on earth?
And now.
As happens to all those who are captives of a crown.
Pauline learned that she had to marry someone of her own rank.
A stranger to her except for his name and his reputation as the lord of a neighboring country.
There was no way around it.
Since she was a princess,
She had to marry according to the demands of her position.
When she heard the news,
She went at nightfall to her pansies,
All tucked into their beds,
And told them her grief.
They,
Woken by her tears,
Lifted their solemn eyes and looked at her.
Do you hear it?
They said.
Hear what?
Asked the princess.
We are low to the ground,
So we hear it.
Said the pansies.
Bend down your head and listen.
The princess let her head drop toward the ground.
She heard wooden shoes coming along the road.
She ran to the gate.
And there was Shasta.
Tall and lean.
Dressed like a poor traveler with a bundle tied up in a blue cotton handkerchief slung across his shoulder.
And 5,
000 miles worn down to nothing but the faithful tramp of his old wooden shoes.
Oh the blue moon the blue moon cried the princess.
And running down the road she threw herself into his arms.
How happy and proud they were of each other.
He,
Because she remembered him and knew him so well by the sight of his face and the sound of his footsteps after all these years.
And she,
Because he'd come all that way in a pair of wooden shoes,
Just as he was.
Without fearing she'd be ashamed to know him again.
Once he and Helene had finished kissing,
Shasta said,
I'm so hungry.
When Helene heard that,
She brought him into the palace through the pansies by her own private path.
Then,
With her own hands,
She set food in front of him and made him eat.
Shasta,
Looking at her,
Said,
You're just as beautiful as I imagined.
And you?
So are you.
She answered,
Laughing and clapping her hands.
Oh,
The blue moon.
She cried.
The blue moon has to rise tonight.
Low in the west,
The new moon,
Tilted on its side,
Rocked and turned softly in its sleep.
And there,
Facing the Earth through the cleared night sky.
The blue moon hung like a burning grape against the dark.
Like the heart of a sapphire cracked open,
The air deepened and flushed to a richer shade.
The wind held its breath.
Still and hushed.
Until not a leaf trembled on the branches.
And the sea out west gathered its waves gently to itself.
Letting its tide sink wholly into sleep.
Wide-eyed,
The stars watch their own reflections in the enchanted water.
While a glowing blue light spread out across everything.
Under the glow of candles behind drawn tapestry curtains,
Watching Shasta's happiness,
The princess felt the change that had spellbound the world outside.
I feel,
She said.
I don't know how.
But the palace is under siege.
Let's go out where we can breathe fresh air.
The candlelight grew ghostly and dim as they parted the heavy curtains at the window and stepped out into the night.
Oh,
The blue moon.
Helene cried out.
Oh Shasta,
It's the blue moon!
The whole world looked carved out of blue stone.
Trees with trunks dark-veined like marble held up branches that drooped under transformed leaves.
Colored like peacock feathers at rest.
Gem within gem,
They'd burn through every shade from pale green to black.
The white blossoms of a cherry tree had turned to turquoise.
And the spray of a fountain tossing and swaying looked like a column of blue fire.
Where a long inlet of sea reached in to touch the edge of the hanging gardens,
The stars glimmered like fireflies,
Green against a floor of purple.
Nothing stirred.
Nothing made a sound.
Even the Nightingale had gone silent.
Because the thing it longed for had finally become visible before its eyes.
Once in a blue moon.
Said Helene.
Waiting for her dream to become fully real.
Let's go now.
She said.
Somewhere I can set aside my crown.
Tonight brought you back to me.
And the blue moon has come for us.
Let's go.
Where should we go?
Asked Shasta.
As far as we can.
Quite lean.
Let's go to the blue moon.
Tonight it feels like you could walk on water or air.
Out there across the sea,
With the stars as stepping stones,
We might reach the blue moon just as it sets into the waves.
But as they made their way through the deep pathways of the garden leading down to the shore.
They came across something even more wonderful.
Than anything they'd seen yet.
In front of them,
Facing the sea.
Stood two enormous reindeer.
Their tall antlers reaching up into the branches overhead.
And behind them sat a sled.
Long with deep sides like the hull of a ship.
Everything looked blue in that strange light.
There,
Closer by,
Stood the Moon Fairy himself.
Waiting.
A tall,
Striking figure dressed in blue fox fur.
With heron wings fixed to the sides of his hood.
And these wings lifted and clapped as Shasta and the princess approached.
Are you coming to the blue moon?
Called the fairy,
His voice whistling and shrill like wind.
Shasta answered without hesitation.
Yes,
We're coming.
And really,
What else could he say?
Cried Helene,
Hesitating for a moment.
What will the blue moon do for us?
One's there.
Answered the moon fairy.
You can have your wish,
Your heart's deepest desire.
But only once in a blue moon can you have it.
Are you coming?
We're coming.
Cried Helene.
Oh,
Let's hurry.
Walk softly.
Whispered the moon fairy.
And duck down under these branches.
Because if anything wakes up and sees the blue moon.
.
.
Memory can never fade.
On Earth,
Only the Nightingale among all living things has ever seen a blue moon.
And the joy and pain of that memory is why it sings all night.
Every night.
Walks softly so nothing else wakes up,
And learns to long for it too.
Because up in the blue moon,
Our sleep is already troubled by those who cry out for abandonment.
To come again.
He looked at Helene and smiled warmly.
He said again.
And suddenly they were on the sled,
And the reindeer were racing down toward the sea.
The blue moon rested with its lower edge touching the water.
At that site,
Before they'd even cleared the garden paths.
One of the reindeer threw back its great branching antlers and snorted with joy.
With a soft rustle in the thick branches overhead.
A bird with a long trail of feathers stirred on its perch.
The sled glided off the land and out over the smooth water,
Moving fast as if skating on ice.
And the reflected stars glowed like fireflies as Helene and Shasta,
Alongside the moon fairy,
Sped away across its shining surface.
The still air whistled through the reindeer's antlers.
They moved so fast that the trees,
The hanging gardens,
And the palace walls dissolved from view like wisps of smoke.
Sky and sea became one magic sapphire,
Pulling them in toward its center.
Toward the heart of the blue moon itself.
Once the blue moon had set below the sea,
Far behind them on the land they'd left.
The leaves rustled and drew slightly together,
Shaking off the eerie stillness and the magic colors that had dyed them.
And once again,
The Nightingale broke into passionate songs.
Joy and grief together.
Then,
From the branch the reindeer had brushed with its antlers,
A peacock threw back its head and let out a harsh cry.
Having no sweet voice to celebrate what it had witnessed.
And that's why,
Ever since,
It cries out as it climbs up to roost each night.
Because it shares with the Nightingale.
A grief for a beauty it saw once and can never see again.
Accept.
Once in a blue moon.
But Helene and Shasta live together on the blue moon.
They look back on the world now and then,
If they choose to remember it at all.
Without.
Any longing or sorrow,
And they lived happily ever after.
The end.
Sleep well,
Dream traveler.
Wannabe self.
