Land of Night

He was swung into the Land of Night by his toes, and was gently flipped right-side-up with his blanket covering him. He could see that outside the blanket it was as dark as his room. The air was cool and pressed close to the ground. The little boy pulled his blanket off and found that he was standing among the stars. The grass at his feet was cool, and the ground warm, and the dew soaked his socks. He looked to the sky above the stars, it was a black as pitch. And so, slowly the ground at his feet came into focus in the misty starlight. It seemed to him that the whole landscape was bundled around him like his blanket, the faint light held everything close. He could see only as far as he could shout and then there was a border of darkness. He felt like he was standing under a streetlamp exposed to the vast night around, that was free to stare at him, this lonely figure. The little boy sat down and drew his blanket so that only his face was showing. Oh, how his eyes shone in that soft starlight as he stared and trembled in wide open awe. So he waited. What do you expect came to him from behind the stars? I can tell you that at the time he expected nothing at all. That anyone should come or anything to happen hadn't occurred to him yet, so that my appearance wasn't a shock but was a gentle surprise. To his eyes I suppose that it seemed I melted into view, like appearing through a thick fog. I stood at a distance from him and observed him quietly, him unafraid and his face and eyes shining shrouded in his thick dark blanket.