Читать книгу: «Silken Bedtime Stories»

The Journey of a Moonbean

Once upon a time, it rained all day. Byevening, the rain had subsided. But the sky was still covered with clouds. Theclouds were dark and heavy. It got dark earlier than usual. On that day,children stayed at home, and adults hurried home from work. Theevening had just begun, and the streets were empty and quiet. Even the cars hadstopped driving down the small street. Only their distant noise from the mainstreet made it clear that they had not stopped driving altogether. Suddenly, in the darkness, a thin ray ofmoonlight broke through the thick clouds. It slid first onto a neighbouringcloud. Then it jumped onto a cloud below. And it began to descend to the groundfaster and faster. It seemed not like a ray of light, but like a mischievousboy who had been kept from playing outside for a long time, had run away andwas hurrying to his friends. But, jumping down to the ground, the ray suddenly stopped and froze. Fora few seconds, it lay completely still. Then, hesitantly and slowly, it crawledforward. Now it looked like a kitten trying to sneak up on a bird. The ray oflight moved forward cautiously and froze, then came to life again briefly andslowly moved forward. Suddenly, a wall appeared in front of theray! It was a doghouse. Sliding up and running across the roof of the doghouse,the ray jumped down onto something soft and warm. The dog Jack, as if sensingthis, twitched his ear and barked discontentedly through his sleep. Thefrightened ray hurriedly jumped off the ear and ran forward. After crossing thecourtyard, a small clearing and some bushes, the ray suddenly fell from thecliff onto something completely unusual for him! Everything around him wasswaying and sparkling! How he loved it! The ray did not even realise that itwas he himself who was making the river waves sparkle. Just as suddenly, high above the river,another, dissatisfied ray peered out from behind a cloud. This one was muchthicker and slower. He looked down at the earth angrily. And heavily, withgreat reluctance, he began to descend, from cloud to cloud, towards the riveritself. Noticing it, the little ray darted from side to side. And the big rayheaded straight for it and stopped nearby. It seemed as if the older brother wasscolding his little, disobedient brother who had run away. The waves around thebig ray slowly swayed from side to side. And the little brother justifiedhimself, begging not to tell his parents about his mischief. The tremblingripples around the little ray betrayed his excitement. A minute later, the big, thick rayreached the first low-hanging cloud. It froze. The mischievous little rayjumped in after it and immediately ran ahead. The big ray caught up with it andpulled it back. Now they were moving together. But from time to time, thelittle ray still ran a couple of steps ahead. So the rays reached a small opening in the dark cloud. The little rayjumped in first, cheerfully. The big ray climbed in heavily behind it. And theclouds closed. It became dark again... dark...