once upon a porch swing

At the edge of a starlit forest, alone in a dusky glen, is a porch swing. It is a cozy little chair, hanging there in the dusty-blue clearing, swinging from an overhanging tree branch. Moss is carpeting the floor underfoot and ferns are dancing untamed at the roots of the birch and maple trees around the glen. Night is falling softly, and it is going to be a perfectly clear sky, tonight. It always is, here at the porch swing.

In fact, the forest, the glen, and the swing are all so fond of the starlight, or frightened of the daylight, that there is never any morning at all here.  There is always a soft misty dusk surrounding the glen when you walk up, and a perfect starry night while you are sitting there, and then a very cold grey fog as you are walking home. And, if you look back towards the woods while you are walking up the steps of your front porch and just about to open the door, you can sometimes see pink and yellow fingers reaching for the glen to scoop it away until you want it again. But, no matter how long you sit there, it is always a beautiful starry night at the swing. Because this swing is made for watching stars.

Anyone can visit the porch swing at anytime he wishes, but only one person or two friends can be there at once. That is how the swing works. It is for everyone, but it is each one’s own. 

Tonight, sitting alone on the swing, is  Nicolas Barbary.

Nicolas loved the stars more than anything he knew of. He came to the swing every night, with a thermos of hot chocolate in case of cold, a wood sword strapped ‘round his waist in case of adventure, and a heart beating fast with wonder and excitement.  He hadn’t studied constellations or star science, didn’t even know there was such a thing, and didn’t need to. He saw his own shapes in the skies, and rather liked it that way.

There was the polar bear cub that romped through snowbanks under shimmering lights, and the otter and her pups that played all night in warm, tropical water.

After that came the dragon- a fierce, fire breathing, angry dragon that lived on the cliffs with the seagulls flying around him. Nicolas wasn’t sure yet if the seagulls fought against or for the dragon. The stories the stars wrote were always a little different.

Then came the woodlands and a friendly family of deer which Nicolas loved dearly.  And finally and most terrifying of all was the ferocious tiger that chased the rest of them away before daybreak. 

Nicolas knew all of the star-shapes and their stories. He thought of them as friends, at night while he sat on the swing and watched them move across the night sky.

But sometimes, Nicolas was lonely. While he loved the polar bear, the otters, and the deer, he could not talk to them. He needed a friend. 

So one night, when the loneliness inside him was bigger than his desire to watch the stars, Nicolas set down his cup of hot chocolate, jumped off the swing (his legs didn’t quite reach the forest floor from up there on the swing), called goodbye to the sky, and set off across the glen and into the woods. 

Nicolas was cheerful as he marched along, and he whistled an adventure song. His song sounded warm and confident amid the lush ferns and soft moss, and the chirps of the crickets and hoots of owls rounded out the tune nicely.   

He walked happily like this for quite some time. But gradually, the crickets died away and the soft sounds of the warbling woodland owls turned into the somewhat frightening screeches of big white owls that Nicolas hadn’t ever seen before.  He began to notice a change in the forest, too. The trees were now tall and proud, the air was colder, and the ground was dusted with snow. Nicolas was beginning to shiver, and to be very lonely, so he decided to see if he could outrun the cold and the friendlessness. He ran and ran and around him the world became more and more white. 

Nicolas ran until he couldn’t run any more and then he stopped. He was surrounded by snow, and the sky above him was a light-show of brilliant colors. Nicolas gazed up at the sky, his eyes so lost in the wonder of it that he didn’t notice anything around him. He didn’t even hear the pounding of heavy feet racing across the crusty snow towards him or the deep, gusty, growly, breathing that was coming with them.

Then, quite suddenly, he was tumbling down a hill, rolling round and round, bumping his head, and feeling very confused. The little hill came to a stop just in time  (for if it had gone on much longer, Nicolas might have become rather grumpy himself), and Nicolas found himself on his back and face to face with a friendly little polar cub. 

“Hello! I’ve been waiting and wishing and wondering and wanting you to come visit!” The cub could barely pronounce his words, and he was so excited that he couldn’t help giving Nicolas a warm, wet, bear-kiss right on the nose.

Nicolas was a little confused from his tumble, but the kiss cleared his head and immediately he recognized the spirited cub from the skies over the swing.

“Will you come play with me?” The cub growled as he rolled in the snow. 

The little white bear bounced up and raced away across the snow with Nicolas slipping along after him. The cub couldn’t wait to teach Nicolas all of his favorite games, and soon they were romping through fluffy new snow, sliding on the icy banks, jumping from iceberg to iceberg across frozen streams, and all the other important things that one does in the snow.

But it seemed a long time had passed, and Nicolas began to think of home.

“You are my friend, right?” he asked the cub, who gave him a sticky bear-kiss in response. “I thought so! Then you will come back to sit on the porch swing and watch the stars with me?”

He pulled at the cub’s ears and jumped up to go, but the little cub, shy for once, just shook his head and looked down at his paws.

“I can’t,” he mumbled. “If I come with you, you can’t ever see me in the stars again. I have to stay here. But I will help you on your way. Run!”

Nicolas followed the bear across the snowy slopes and over to the great, ice blue ocean. 

“You have to take a deep breath and dive deep, and swim, swim, swim down until…,"

“Until what?”

“I don’t know... I’ve never been. But you will know when you get there... Goodbye Nicolas.”

After a final hug and a promise to visit, Nicolas stepped to the edge of the sea, took a deep breath and plunged himself into the ocean.

The water was brilliantly cold and Nicolas shut his eyes tight and tried to think of nothing but swim, swim, swim.

He was swimming downwards, and then all of the sudden he was swimming upwards. He was in paralyzingly cold water and then all of the sudden he was in warm water. What had happened?

Nicolas blinked in surprise as his head bobbed above water, and he found himself in starlit tropical waters. 

“Nicolas!”  A somehow familiar voice called. “Over here!” Nicolas smiled and waved as he recognized the otter and her pups. 

“Come play with us!” they cried, bobbing up and down and splashing him. Nicolas swam over and was met by their wet, furry little bodies. “We’ve been wanting you to come for such a very long time!” The otters were as full of fun as games as the little polar bear had been, and soon Nicolas was swimming as lithely as they were, playing hide-and-seek in kelp beds, floating lazily on his back under summer night skies, and almost forgetting that he wasn’t an otter himself. 

But it did seem a long time had passed, and Nicolas began to think of home. 

“You are my friends, right?” He asked the otters. They affectionately splashed him and nodded their approval. “I thought so! Then you will come back to sit on the porch swing and watch the stars with me?” Nicolas smiled happily as he thought about cuddling up with the otters on the porch swing, and laughing and playing with them in the glen, and most of all, watching the stars with them there. 

But the otter pups looked at each other doubtfully and circled around their mother. “We can’t...” she answered sadly for them all. “If we come with you, you won’t ever see us in the stars again. We must stay here. But we can point you on your way. Swim!”

Nicolas followed the otters through the salty water, over the kelp beds, towards the great looming sandy cliffs. 

“You have to leave the ocean and climb, climb, climb, until...”

“Until what?”

“We don’t know. You will know when you get there. But Nicolas, be careful on the way. Sometimes we hear furious cries and see smoke and fire from the cliffs. Climb as fast as you can and don’t look down and don’t stop to rest! Goodbye Nicolas.”

After a final round of hugs and a promise to visit, Nicolas pulled himself out of the sea and ran across the shore towards the ominous looking cliffs. 

There were notches and footholds and Nicolas thought the climb was at least a little fun, even if it was very difficult. He tried to whistle on his way up so that he wouldn’t notice the scratches on his hands and knees, or the way his sword kept poking his toe as he climbed. But soon he was far too out of breath to whistle and all he wanted was a rest.

Just as he thought about resting, Nicolas found himself on a flat plateau near the top of the cliffs. He should have heeded the otter and kept climbing, but he was so tired that he forgot and collapsed on the sandy ground. Nicolas lay there thinking how splendid it was that all of his star-friends were now his real friends. There was the polar bear, and the otters... but... Nicolas was having trouble remembering what came next in the sky. It had been such a long time since he had watched the stars. He drowsily listened to seagulls crying high above him. Seagulls...

Dragon!

Nicolas wasn’t tired any more. He leaped to his feet. Of course! The dragon and the seagulls that couldn’t make up their minds! That was what was next. 

Nicolas didn’t have any desire at all to meet these creatures. He frantically searched for a foothold to begin the final scaling of the cliffs. But he was too late.

Out of a hidden cave at the far end of the plateau, huge claws were emerging. Nicolas could hear the very sand running away from them, as if it too was frightened. He heard the flicking of a forked tongue. Worst of all, he heard the thing take a deep breath and prepare to speak.

“Hello Nicolas. Won’t you stay and play with me?” 

Nicolas knew he could not run at this point. It wouldn’t be the brave thing to do. So, he turned around, braced his feet, drew his wooden sword, and said as loudly as he could “I will!”

The dragon laughed. “E x c e ll e n t!  Lets begin then, shall we?” The dragon inhaled, a deep, sandy, rattling sort of sound. Nicolas gripped his sword. Red flames leaped out of the dragon’s mouth, and Nicolas scurried out of the way. They were playing tag, and the dragon was ‘it’, and all Nicolas could do was try to stay away and jab at the dragon with his sword when he could. 

The game went on for some minutes with just these two players. Nicolas was scorched and tired and didn’t know how much longer he could fight. He was hiding behind a large rock, preparing himself for the next round, when he heard a seagull cry and a ground-shaking thud. There were rocks, huge rocks, falling from the sky. The birds, ten times the size of most seagulls, were hurling them at the dragon. Before long, the huge sneaky lizard was bruised through his scales, and tired, and rather bored of his game. The leader of the birds threw one last stone, which hit him square on the nose.

With a furious “Ouch!” The dragon growled at the silly birds and slithered back away into his hole. 

Nicolas peeped out from behind  his hiding place. The seagulls were landing all around the battle scene.

“Hello Nicolas! Hello! Hello!” They chatted and bobbed their heads.

“Hello... are you my friends?”

“Well... we can never quite make up our minds whether we are or not. Sometimes we are the dragon’s friends. But for today...” The biggest of the seagulls paused to turn his head and consulted noisily with the the rest of the flock. Nicolas watched their heads bob and heard them ruffle their feathers confusedly. “For today, we have decided, we are your friends.”  The gull gave him a self-satisfied smile. 

“Oh, I am glad to hear it!” Nicolas said, and stood thinking for a moment.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to watch stars with gulls. But, if they were his friends... “Then will you come back to the porch swing to watch stars with me?” 

The gull thought hard for a long moment. “No, no, no... we can’t. Then we couldn’t ever be the dragon’s friends again.” It was a good answer, and the gull thought so, and Nicolas thought so too, and they both smiled. The bird bobbed his head in a thoughtful and important way. “And, to add to it, we can help you on your way. Fly!”

Nicolas climbed onto the broad, feathery back and held on tight as the bird caught the wind and sailed up into the air. They were flying upwards, close to the cliffs. Nicolas could just see the line of trees that broke the skyline. Within moments they had reached the edge of the cliff, and the seagull touched down in a sandy clearing. Nicolas tumbled off his back.

“Now you just have to go through the forest, and walk, walk, walk until...”

“Until what?”

“We don’t know... maybe until you find something worth all that walking? Goodbye, Nicolas.”

Nicolas patted the bird on the head, decided not to promise to visit, in case he came on a bad day, and said goodbye. 

He started off through the woods and thought his adventure song sounded nice under the red, gold, and yellow leaves. He was whistling happily along, when he saw three familiar pairs of ears poking up above the bushes.

“Hello!” he called. The ears pricked towards the sound and were soon followed by soft black eyes and delicate noses... The deer family!

“Nicolas! We’ve been wanting you to come visit!” The little spotted fawns gamboled over to him, and licked him on his cheeks, and stuck their velvet noses into his pockets.

“Come play with us!” With a rustle of leaves and a soft tap of hooves, the deer leaped away. Nicolas followed them through the forest, and the deer taught him how to walk down winding forest paths without making a sound, how to bound and leap through soft grassy meadows, even how to bob his head while he walked and wrinkle his nose to catch scents on the air.

Nicolas loved playing with the deer. But a long time had passed, and he was beginning to think of home. “You are all my friends, aren’t you?” The littlest fawn touched her nose to his in a way that said ‘your very best friends!’. Nicolas wrapped his arms around her neck. “Then you will come back with me to watch the stars from the porch swing.”

Ears drooped and heads bowed all around him. “No, Nicolas, we can’t. If we did, you could never see us in the skies again. We have to stay here in our home. But we can help you on your way.  Follow!”

The deer turned and quietly trotted through the forest, with Nicolas close behind. He was sad to leave, but he wanted to go home. And he still hadn’t found a friend to watch stars with him, although now he did have quite a lot of friends. 

It was not long before Nicolas noticed the woodland changing. The bright colors of fall were fading and drooping into dry brown, and the broad leafy oaks were growing smaller and farther apart. They walked for a long time through this world that looked like it was dying away.  Finally the deer stopped at the end of a vast expanse of dry, cropped grass. 

“This is as far as we can go. You must run across the field, until...”

“Until what?”

“Until you find what you are looking for. You will know when you are there. Run as fast as you can, and do not stop to rest and do not look behind you.... you must reach what you are looking for before daylight. This is the end of the night, but do not be afraid of it. Just run!”

Nicolas swallowed hard. The end of the night sounded like something rather worth being afraid of. This would take all of his bravery.

He fondly hugged all three of the deer, and promised to visit them soon. Then he turned, took a few deep breaths, and set off running across the brittle grass. 

The thin crescent moon was low in the sky, almost on the horizon. Up ahead, just under the tired moon, Nicolas could make out a clump of dense growing trees. The night was at it’s coldest, but Nicolas could not feel it. He was running harder than he had ever run in his life, and his heart was pounding in his chest, and all he could hear was it’s rhythmic thud.  Why was he running so hard? Was something chasing him? He didn’t know, but the thought scared him. Nicolas wasn’t thinking of the deer’s final warning, and the idea that he was being pursued was tugging at his mind... he just couldn’t help it.

Nicolas slowed his pace the smallest bit, and barely turned his head to glance behind. Then his heart stopped and jumped into his throat. Coming from the edge of the grassland was a huge, angry tiger, with glaring yellow eyes that shone in the night and hungry bright white teeth.  

Nicolas stifled a terrified shout and forced his feet to run even faster. The forest was getting closer and closer, but so were the pointed teeth in the tigers mouth. His feet were flying across the parched turf, and a pink ribbon was being tied around the sky that the moon was falling out of, and the tiger’s breath was hot on Nicolas’ heels. 

All at once, Nicolas felt a thorn-sharp claw almost catch his back, and saw dawn breaking over the trees, and tumbled through a wall of bushes into the shelter of the forest where it was eternally dusk.

He knew the tiger couldn’t reach him in here, but somehow, Nicolas couldn’t stop running. Branches were scraping his face, and thorns were tearing at him, and he hurt all over, but he couldn’t stop.

The branches were growing closer and closer together, and it was becoming difficult for Nicolas to push his way through. Soon they were so densely woven that he had to pull out his sword in order to clear a pathway for himself. His adventure song didn’t sound so good to chopping down branches. Nicolas was crashing through the forest, panting for breath, and almost blinded by tears of exhaustion, when suddenly his sword broke through, and, there he was- standing in a dusty-blue clearing that homed a cosy looking porch swing. 

Nicolas was so happy to be back, and so tired from the adventure, that he shouted for joy and his feet danced a little. He didn’t notice her at first. 

Then he did. It was a little girl, standing right there, next to the porch swing. She had a scratch on her face, the tips of her pony tail were scorched, and she held a battered looking set of wooden bow and arrows in her hand. And, she was watching him with a big sparkly smile on her face.

Nicolas didn’t know quite what to do, because he didn’t know her. But he’d been so long about looking for a friend, that it seemed like a good thing to keep doing until he found one. And she looked friendly, and she was there next to the swing, after all. 

“Hello,” he said, and thought for a long moment. “Would you like to be my friend, and sit here on the porch swing together and watch stars?”

“I’ve just been out looking for a friend... I knew I’d find one!” She threw down her bow and arrows and ran across the little glen.

Nicolas dropped his sword just in time to meet her hug. The little girl squeezed him happily, and then suddenly stepped away, shy for the moment. “My name is Florence...” she paused, and the last words came out flavored with a smile “you could call me Flori.”  Nicolas thought it was quite a good name for her.... in fact, he thought her voice sounded just like flowers falling from trees on sunny spring mornings. But then, Nicolas had liked Flori from the moment he had seen her and couldn’t help but think lovely things about her. 

“I’m Nicolas. Would you like some hot chocolate?” Flori nodded and they walked over to the porch swing, poured two cups of somehow still-hot chocolate from Nicolas’ thermos, and hopped up to watch the stars together. 

Nicolas was looking forward to seeing his friends in the skies again. It seemed a long while since he’d been with them. But the stars were rather different tonight, and both Nicolas and Flori gazed up in wonder at the twinkling shapes they saw prancing across the night sky. The stars were brighter and the skies were fuller tonight, because the animals from both of their adventures were now using the same sky as their playing ground. Along with the bear cub were arctic seals, dolphins dove and leaped near the otters, and cuddly little rabbits hopped around after the deer in the woodlands. The only creatures that inhabited both of their stories were the dragon and the tiger, and the sight of them made the children shiver because they had only grown in terror and ferociousness.

But Flori and Nicolas sat safely on the swing with bright eyes, telling about their adventures in whispers, pointing out their friends in the sky, and, every now and then, discovering a new shape that neither of them had known before. 

Nicolas sipped at his hot chocolate, smiled at his friend, and was really quite happy to realize that finding a friend was only the first adventure of many more that they would have together. 

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