CHAPTER XVII – THE RISING MOON
That same day, Lily braced up and put down the letter to her sister. She read it over and over, several times. It was a nice letter. Lily had to admit that Violet had done a great job. After classes she went to the post box where letters were dropped and each evening the box was emptied and all its contents sent away.
Next, she went to look for Mark. She needed to straighten things with him. He was not in the library, neither could she find him in the lounge of the Flowers. Instead Phillip came out to see her in the corridor and gave her a note. "More letters," thought Lily in bitterness, under the impression that letter never forebode well. At least, the last one she had received, did not. She thanked Phillip and left. She went to the library and was surprised to see so many students inside, reading. There had been only four or five several minutes before. Lily had forgotten that the end of the school year was approaching and students were becoming more and more diligent as to their studies. She could hardly find a place to sit. When she did find it, however, she remained there for less than a minute. There were students on all her sides. She could not imagine opening the note from Mark and reading it there. So, she smiled to the students, made an indefinite face saying something like "oops" and left the library.
Where could he be? The choir practice was yesterday, and the swimming practice was to be as usual after dinner. It coincided with her football practice. Lily passed by the dining room and seeing the door open slid inside and sat at a chair. She could not wait to read Mark's note. Her hands trembling and her heart pounding, she opened it. There was a large heart drawn inside, glittering in red, orange and purple colours. Lily exclaimed in dismay at its beauty and suddenly she smelled a fresh citrus odour. It was coming from the note. Then, she heard a soft tune. That was also coming from the note. She stared at the beautiful heart and saw letters, appearing one by one on the sheet, inside the heart.
"The rising moon
will haunt us,
its superbness whispering,
till we step aside
and wonder, silently,
in super-awe,
at its perfection
and lucidity."
"Oh!" thought Lily not able to move. "Mark!" Now, that was a note she did not expect. All of a sudden, she heard some shuffle at the door and it closed. Before Lily could do anything, it got locked from the outside. Lily jumped and started pounding on the door and yelled, "Hello! I'm inside! Please, open!"
Obviously, the person who locked the door was already far from there, for nothing happened in answer to Lily's shouts and hits. "Very cool!" thought she. What was she to do now? Dinner was not due for another hour at least, so she would have to spend so much time here alone, in the dark. "Why, in the dark?" she shrugged her desperation away, "I will switch on the lights." She started groping along the wall in search of the light switch. At first she could not find it. That was why she decided to sit down, take some time and try to calm down. She walked back towards the place where she thought the chair was, but somehow did not reach it. She inhaled loudly. "OK, don't panic. Everything is in its place. This is our dining room. You are familiar with it. Calm down and you will find whatever you need." At the end, she realized she had said that aloud. Not knowing what to do, Lily sat on the floor. She stretched her arms and moved them in all directions around her, just to find out that there was nothing within reach. "Pity," she thought, "I shouldn't have moved from the door, in the first place. Maybe that's some stupid trick of Padrina's." Yes, now that she thought of it, that explanation seemed highly reasonable. Will this girl not tire of casting spells? Well, it could be somebody else. Or, just a coincidence. After all, the dining room was only open during meal hours. Maybe somebody of the staff just forgot to close it, and in a hurry to do it, before any of the teachers had come this way, had locked it without checking inside.
"Which way am I to go now?" thought Lily. She tried to remember which direction she had come from, but the darkness in the room made that very hard. She knew that if she started moving in the wrong direction, it would take her farther inside the room and she will not be able to locate the door at all. Maybe she would be able to move a chair around the room and bang it against the walls to hear the hollow thump where the door was. "Can I?" she wondered. At least she could do her best and try it. Well, for that she needed to know where she could find a chair. Of course, there were plenty of chairs inside, yet in order to move an object, Lily still needed to "see" its location quite clearly in her mind. She spent around half an hour trying to "locate" a chair, or a table somewhere in the room. No success. She only got tired of exerting her mind. In some time, what she was doing started to seem like absurd to her, mind-groping in the dark, hunting for objects. Lily smiled, "It would be mighty funny, if it wasn't so scary." She rested for a while and suddenly felt Mark's note in her hand. Now Lily was glad that she had not let it go. She opened it and smelled the fresh odour again. Then the soft tune was played once again and some light came out of the note. Lily stared on, as a super-moon was rising from the paper and getting higher and higher, the light of the moon growing stronger, until Lily could see the room and the door. Slowly, "its superbness" started to "whisper" and Lily could hear clearly its voice in her head. Strangely, the voice was rather familiar and its tone was a bit rude, "Where, the hack, are you? Speak to me! NOW!" Lily blinked and wondered how to speak and to whom, when she heard again, "Lily, it's me Violet! Either speak out loud, or think of it, but please, tell me WHERE you are!"
"Dining room!" shouted Lily and sat down on the floor again. She simply did not have the strength to walk to the nearest chair, although she could see it very clearly now. The whole thing was too much for her.
In a couple of minutes the door was opened and Lily could go out of the dining room. Professor Magpie was there with Violet Absurmia. Violet rushed towards Lily and hugged her. "You really frightened me, Lil'." said she when they both had calmed down. Professor Magpie looked at the two girls lovingly. "Lily Lemonpie, you are very lucky to have Violet as your friend. Tell me what happened?"
"I don't know, professor." said Lily honestly. "I came by, saw the door open and entered. I needed to sit down and think." she did not say anything about the note in her hand. "And then somebody closed the door and locked it. That's all. Later I heard Violet in my head."
Violet was amazed, "Was it? You could actually hear me? Oh, I didn't know how it works. I'm thrilled it did work, however. That was my first time."
When she went to dinner, Lily found Mark and told him, "I got your note. It's funny, but it saved me." She gave him a short kiss and sat down in the Moons section. From time to time she would turn towards the Flowers section and search Mark's eyes and whenever she caught him, they smiled.
Mark came to watch Lily's football practice. The weather was already good enough, so a lot of students used the football and cheerleading practices as an excuse to stay outside. They came to the stadium, sat down in groups, and chatted. When the practice was over, Mark took Lily by the hand and pointing up, he said, "Lily, my love, look here above." Lily thought it was magical, "Mark, it sounds like poetry." He said, "And it looks like poetry, too. Look!" Lily followed his eyes and saw a huge moon rising above the horizon, still soft and yellow, but soon to turn silver and cold. She was at a loss. There were no words to describe this. Mark said slowly, "Till we step aside and wonder, silently, in super-awe, at its perfection and lucidity." Lily looked at him with new eyes. "Correct." she only managed to say.
Strange enough, Lily slept very well in spite of the super-moon and her dreams were silver and silky.
CHAPTER XVIII – FALLING A