One summer,
At the very end of the summer,
When the daytime was so long it seemed the sun may never go down,
A young fairy and her little brother went chasing after the sunset.
Her name was Madge,
And his was Stuart.
And Stuart believed that if they could fly fast enough,
They would never have to go to bed.
They could follow the sunlight as it wound its way to the other side of the world.
We'll just keep on flying,
He told his big sister Madge,
And we'll never have to sleep again.
Madge was wise,
And she loved her brother.
Summertime was when the two of them were able to spend as much time outside as they liked.
Their parents and elders were busy using the daylight to harvest milk thistle and honey to store for the winter.
Madge was in charge,
And Stuart was her loyal deputy.
Together they explored and wandered as far as they wanted,
Freely roaming over the hills and valleys of their home.
On this bright evening,
As the sun tipped its way toward the horizon,
Stuart said,
Madge,
Let's do it tonight!
Let's try to outrun the sun!
Madge braided her shining green hair into a fishtail and thought out loud,
How fast would we need to fly in order to chase the sun down?
Stuart answered by shooting up into the sky as quickly as a dragonfly,
Zipping up,
Up,
And up higher still as Madge watched from below.
She floated up to where he'd stopped to hover,
And looking out over the grasslands below,
She said,
You know,
We may get tired from all that flying and need a rest,
And then we'd be far from home,
And where would we sleep?
Madge,
The point is we don't sleep.
The point is we keep moving so we never have to sleep again.
We'll follow the sun forever,
Eating and drinking what we need from its rays.
Not even a nap,
Stuart?
Madge chuckled.
Even you need a nap sometimes.
I do not,
Stuart answered,
A little angry.
Madge floated up higher still and beckoned for Stuart to join her.
As she rose higher and higher,
The wind whipped her fishtail braid around,
Loosening some strands.
They shone in the late afternoon sun,
Glittering with light.
Higher still she went,
Above the dragonflies and moths,
Past the territory of the hunting birds and bats,
And finally,
Where the air was beginning to get thinner,
She rested on a light breeze.
Stuart struggled to keep up with her,
Finally meeting her in the clear air above it all.
A little out of breath,
He asked,
What are you up to?
Madge said nothing,
Simply turning to her little brother with a smirk on one side of her mouth.
She nudged her chin at the air behind him,
And he turned.
Then seeing the land laid out before him,
He gasped in wonder.
It's the night,
It's coming.
Across the distance,
A gray,
Shadowy silence crept over the land.
As the sun was beginning to set,
The earth was shaded,
Bit by bit,
The canopy below the trees slipping into quiet,
The packed dirt of the forest floor growing cool.
The bugs came out,
And the bats too,
Feasting on their dinner.
We need to start flying,
Stuart said,
But Madge caught him by his foot and gently pulled him back.
Don't you see,
Stuart,
The day ending and the night beginning is just a dance,
And everyone plays their part.
The light fades and the candles are lit,
The plants grow still,
And the dew collects.
The animals find a safe place to nest,
And the owls take watch over the grasslands.
If we chase the sun,
We'll never know the sweetness of the sunrise,
We'll never feel that wonderful hunger for sleep in the morning as we smell breakfast cooking.
The whole world was made to sleep,
Because sleeping gives us something to wake up from,
Otherwise we'd do nothing but chase down a thing that can never be caught,
And meanwhile we'd miss out on our whole lives.
Stuart felt disappointed.
He had been getting ready for an adventure,
And instead he was just getting a lecture from his big sister.
Look,
Stu,
Look.
Madge pointed to the little gleam of light at the horizon,
Where the last golden rays of the day were collecting.
Watch,
She said.
They watched,
And the arc of bluish-gray at the top of the sky above them spread out into bruised-colored purples and greens along the crown of the sky.
The gleam of gold at the horizon stretched into a misty yellow,
And then suddenly,
Almost imperceptibly,
A smudge of raspberry soaked the sky between.
Oh,
Said Stuart,
Suddenly enraptured.
They watched as the little raspberry smear grew and deepened in color to a rich,
Velvety red with a soft shawl of orange billowing at its sides.
The colors danced in slow motion across the golden valley of their home,
Far below,
Where the deep stone blue of the river picked up sparkles of the fading sunset in its movement as it followed its path through the woods.
Stuart could see it all now,
The whole world,
A perfect dance,
And everything playing its part.
The dark shadows of the forest where moss grew and frogs lived,
The stony riverbed where fish hid and bears stepped,
The whole earth a giant clock,
The hands turning slowly,
So slowly you couldn't tell until the sky burst into pinks and oranges for the last few moments of the day.
I can't miss the end of the day,
Stuart said solemnly,
This is maybe the best part.
Madge chuckled and put her arm around her little brother,
Pulling him close and smelling his hair.
You love the sun so much,
You are almost too impatient to see her at her very best just before she goes to bed.
We shouldn't chase her,
Let her live her day,
Just as we live ours,
And the moths theirs and the frogs and the bats.
It's the way we grew into this place,
Our planet,
This is how it is.
Just then Stuart got a little sleepy and glanced back at his sister.
Is it okay if we watch the rest of the sunset from our treehouse,
He asked,
I think I might want to sleep tonight after all.
Madge nodded and told him,
Of course my favorite little boy,
You lead the way.
They floated slowly back down to earth,
Passing the bats and birds as they hunted,
The shadows playing on the breeze,
And the sweet smell of sunset all around them.
