Big puffy cumulus clouds were towering from the horizon to almost overhead, like magnificent castles. The sort of castles that wonderful, magical things take place in, like all the famous fairytales if you remove all of their plots. No wicked fairies, no evil stepmoms, just lots of happy princesses that will be happy for all of eternity and will never have any existential crises related to how their stories have absolutely no purpose. 

It was those sort of castles. I can be sure of it, because it was quite dark out, but the pregnant moon was shining heavily against them so that they were lit up with moonlight. And everybody knows that moonlight is magical. And so the castle clouds were just looming there, making me take in a long breath of air. 


![20220507_070448.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/ginnyannette/EqYtgLw4mStYsynwXYF8ojjjPzf4i44WxU9qBeyPTt7y4U4LzK8L75bP12WNBY24Lxm.jpg)


I let it out, along with most of the discord I had been harboring, hidden away in my chest on such a beautiful night. A flicker of lightening flashed high in the castle as I leaned back into the tent and zipped it up. 

I closed my eyes.  Twenty seconds passed by smoothly—as smooth as a soft breeze on a May midnight somewhere in nowhere in middle Georgia. Then, came the whispers.

“Is there really a monster on the moon that comes down at night when the moon is full?  And does it hunt children?” 

The girl, nestled against me, whispered in that voice that is transitioning between the stages of a know-nothing naïve five-year-old and an enjoys-a-good-scare seven-year-old. 

“No, there is not.” My eyes closed once more. 

The girl didn’t seem to hear me, and she snuggled against me with the sort of enthusiasm she might have on Christmas morning…if Christmas morning were crossed with Halloween. 

![20220507_070230.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/ginnyannette/EqSWQrF5ufS7i9oL6saLf4ao2tmxr854CwtHhqwRCGmAeDnVr1WxcHov52R8LXVYtos.jpg)

“And now,” whispered the boy from the other side of the tent in a tone that was equally excited, “the monster is coming down! And he is looking for six-year-old kids that are sleeping in tents!” It doesn’t really make sense to tell you that the boy was whispering and then put an exclamation at the end of his sentence, but let me assure you that it is possible to whisper an exclamation. 

“How convenient,” I grumbled. 

“Mom!” The girl shout-whispered. 

“There is no moon monster!” I was shout-whispering too. “And even if there was a moon monster, I am currently so tired that if he dared to disturb my slumber *I would destroy him.”*

It felt like the sort of really dramatic shout-whispered speech that brings a discussion to a close. I rested there for twenty seconds and the seconds slipped by like that soft breeze on a May midnight somewhere in nowhere in middle Georgia again. 

“And the moon monster lives on the dark side of the moon…” The boy’s voice faded off into the distance of my mind as the girl snuggled against me enthusiastically again, giggling with excitement, and I heard nothing more the whole night through.

![20220507_070108.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/ginnyannette/EoiPSk3ANKBQoLcRESuoFm7RdBYXMubZjma2E6v8T6gRGR1n3YviReDcTSnUbvnrLqE.jpg)

The moon monster never came. Maybe he took my threat seriously. Or, maybe I accidentally defeated him while dreaming that I was dancing with an octopus. Who knows?

The castles were still in the sky when the sun rose, although perhaps different ones. I looked at them and scoffed at the idea of a moon man. *Of course there is no moon man.*

There are just castles in the sky. *Magical castles.*