Fiction: Birthday Present
May. 2nd, 2013 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clare_dragonflyTitle: Birthday Present
World: Moonsisters
Word count: 3,500
Rating: G
Prompt:![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rainbowfic Moonlight 6, Enigma; Antique Brass 11, How is that even possible? / You're still asking that question? / I'm still hoping for an answer.
Notes: Please ignore the fact that they are all very mature and have huge vocabularies for five-year-olds XD
Angel woke at midnight on the day of her fifth birthday.
Moonlight was streaming in through her window onto her face. She started to sit up, then felt something against her neck and reached up to find it.
Her hands closed on something cool and smooth, but with pointy bits. She lifted it up into the strangely bright moonlight to look at it. Her mouth dropped open in childish awe. It was a necklace—the chain looked like silver, and so did the pendant, a shiny crescent moon. There was something dangling in the middle. She tapped it with her fingernail and saw it shiver, then lifted it closer to her eyes.
It was a piece of crystal, clear and flawless, shaped into a neat point. A diamond? It was a really big diamond, if a diamond was what it was. Angel’s excitement mounted, and then the moonlight began to fade away, and with it her wakefulness. Hand still clutched around the mysterious new necklace, she fell back against her pillow and closed her eyes.
She dreamed of the moon, who was a woman and her friend. They played for hours, just the two of them.
When she woke up in the morning, her mother was calling her for birthday breakfast and the necklace was still there. She jumped up in great delight. It was her birthday! She was five years old! And she already had her first present.
“Daddy! Mommy!” she cried as she ran downstairs, pulling the necklace from where it had fallen down the neck of her pajamas. “Look!”
“There’s my birthday girl!” Her father swept her up into a big hug. “What do you have there, pumpkin?”
Beaming, she held it out for him to see. “I already have a present! Isn’t it pretty?”
Her daddy frowned. Why was he frowning? He put her down, then held his hand out for the necklace. “Let me see that, sweetheart.”
Angel pulled the necklace up and past her braids and held it out to her daddy. Her mommy had come up by this time, too, and they both looked at the necklace together. “Where did you get that, honey?” her mommy asked. “Did you find it somewhere.”
Angel shook her head. “I got it last night. It’s a present.”
Her daddy frowned at her, not looking at the necklace anymore. “Who gave it to you? A boy?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Charles,” said her mommy. “She’s much too young for that.”
“That’s exactly the problem,” said her daddy. He shook the necklace in her hand. “Did some man give this to you? An older person?”
He seemed mad. But he wasn’t mad at her. Angel shook her head again, making the beads on her braids rattle. She was confused and a little scared. “Nobody gave it to me.” She thought about her dream. “It’s a present from the moon. The moon gave it to me last night.”
“The moon can’t give presents, honey,” said her mommy.
“It came from the moon,” Angel repeated stubbornly. Where else could it have come from?
Her daddy took a deep breath. “Okay, Angel. When did the moon give it to you?”
“In the middle of the night,” Angel said, happy that her daddy was listening to her now. “I woke up and I was wearing it.”
Her mommy gasped. “Did someone come in our house?”
“Nobody came in, Mommy,” said Angel, even though her mommy was talking to her daddy and not to her. “The moon just put it in.”
“Angel, honey, if the moon talks to you again, you tell me, okay?” said her daddy.
“Don’t be silly, Daddy.” She grinned. “The moon can’t talk.” She could smell the pancakes her mommy had made her, and she was getting hungry.
“She can’t keep this,” said her daddy to her mommy.
“Maybe someone lost it,” said her mommy. “Put it somewhere so we can find it again when they look for it. It’s a really pretty necklace. That might be real silver.”
“I’ll hang it by the back door,” said her daddy. He turned to walk away.
Angel screamed. “No, Daddy! It’s my necklace! I have to wear it!” She forgot how hungry she was, only scared that her daddy would take the necklace away and she would never be able to wear it again. It was a present from the moon, and things from the moon were important.
“Angel, be quiet,” said her daddy. He was mad at her, now, she could tell. But she didn’t understand why. “This isn’t yours, you understand? This necklace belongs to somebody else.”
“No!” she screamed. “It’s my necklace! The moon gave it to me!”
He grabbed her by the arm and smacked her on the butt. “Stop screaming!”
“Charles, it’s her birthday!” said her mommy, grabbing her by the other arm.
“I’m getting rid of this necklace,” he said. He let go of her and marched to the trash can. He dropped it in.
Angel screamed again and pulled her arm away from her mommy. She ran to the trash can and looked inside. But she couldn’t see her necklace anymore. It had fallen in among the eggshells and fruit cartons and all the other things in the trash.
She started to cry and her daddy picked her up. “It’s okay, Angel,” he soothed. “It’s just a necklace. You have a lot of other presents. Maybe someone else got you a necklace, even nicer than that one. Don’t you want your pancakes?” He put her down on her chair, right in front of a big stack of pancakes.
She ate her pancakes, because she was hungry, but she didn’t forget about the necklace and she knew there could never be a necklace as nice as that one. That one was special. She pretended to forget about it while she had her birthday party and opened her presents and even while she went to bed, but she promised herself that she would wake up after her parents went to bed and find the necklace. She would dig through all of the trash if she had to.
When she woke up, though, the necklace was on her neck again. She gasped and held it tightly. It really was a magic necklace.
Smiling, Angel went back to sleep.
—
Charlotte woke at midnight on the day of her fifth birthday.
Moonlight was streaming in through her window onto her face (which was odd, because the shutters were closed and the curtains drawn). She started to sit up, then felt something against her neck and reached up to find it.
It was a necklace. She lifted it up into the light, her eyes widening. It was a crescent moon—she liked that word, crescent. And inside the crescent moon was a shiny stone. She turned it around in the light. It looked black, except that it was shiny silver in the light. It was the prettiest thing she’d ever seen.
The moonlight began to fade. Charlotte yawned and lay back on her bed, tucking the necklace into the neck of her pajamas.
In the morning she woke up and remembered it was her birthday. She wore the necklace the whole time she was going to the bathroom and putting on the outfit she’d picked out for the special day. Downstairs she could hear her parents talking. “She doesn’t want a Barbie,” her mom was saying.
“Don’t be silly,” her dad said. “Every little girl wants a Barbie. And it’s just one. I didn’t get her the whole dream house or anything.”
Charlotte was a little disappointed to hear she was getting a Barbie for her birthday. Her mom was right—she didn’t want one. Maybe Angel would like it.
Then she got confused, because her parents were all the way downstairs and she couldn’t usually hear them from up here unless they were shouting, which they weren’t. Now they were talking about what to make for breakfast and wondering if they should wait for her to come make a request. She wanted French toast, she thought. “I think I’ll make some French toast,” her mom said.
Charlotte shivered and took off the necklace so she could brush her hair. Her dad was saying something, but it cut off as soon as she took the necklace off. She stared at it, then put it back on. “…Fried eggs might be better,” her dad was saying.
French toast, thought Charlotte firmly.
“Or French toast,” her dad said. “She’ll probably like that. She is five, after all.”
Charlotte swallowed and took the necklace off again. Now she couldn’t hear her parents anymore. She hung up the necklace carefully on a special jewelry holder she had, then went downstairs. “Hi, sweetie,” her mom said when she came into the kitchen. “Happy birthday. I thought I might make some French toast.” She already had the eggs out and the stove on. “What do you think about that?”
“That’s just what I wanted,” said Charlotte happily. She thought about the necklace hanging upstairs in her room. She would put it back on later.
She didn’t put it on in time for Angel’s party, though (which was also her party, because they were both five). She thought about it, but she had a fun time at the party so she decided she didn’t need to wear the necklace until later that night. But Angel told her, “I want to tell you about something,” and Charlotte thought it might be about the necklace.
“I want to tell you about something, too,” said Charlotte. Angel smiled and they promised they would talk about it tomorrow. They always spent all their time together, but at the birthday party there were too many other people (their whole kindergarten class had been invited) so they didn’t talk about it then. They would save it for later, when it would be more private and special.
Charlotte knew Angel was thinking the same thing as she was, even though they didn’t say it out loud.
—
Ivy woke at midnight on the day of her fifth birthday.
Moonlight was streaming in through her window onto her face (which was odd, because her window was facing the wrong way for the moon to shine into it, usually). She started to sit up, then felt something against her neck and reached up to find it.
She inspected it carefully. It appeared to be a necklace with a pendant in the shape of the crescent moon. There was a small polished stone dangling from the inside of the moon. She knew the name of this stone… it was green and striped… malachite, that was it. She’d read about it in one of her books. It wasn’t a particularly expensive stone or anything. But it was pretty. She liked it a lot.
She wondered who had given it to her. She hadn’t been wearing it when she went to sleep. Maybe her parents had come in the middle of the night and put it on for her, like the Tooth Fairy. Ivy smiled and lay back against her pillow as the moonlight began to fade. She would pretend it was magic just like the Tooth Fairy.
When she woke up she got dressed in the clothes her mother had picked out for her, then went downstairs for breakfast. “Hi, sweetie,” said her mother without looking at her. She was chopping up bananas, though, so Ivy thought it must be time for her favorite breakfast—banana pancakes. “Happy birthday.”
“Thank you, Mother. What’s for breakfast?”
“Your favorite.” This time her mother did look up as Ivy clapped and smiled. Then she made a hissing sound with her teeth. Ivy knew that was a bad sound.
Her mother dropped her knife and walked quickly to the sink. She made the hissing sound again as she ran the water over her hand. Ivy hurried over to make sure her mother was okay. “Did you hurt yourself, Mother?”
“It’s all right, Ivy,” her mother said. “Just a little cut.” She turned off the water and crouched down so Ivy could see the cut on her finger, where the blood welled up slowly. “I’ll put a bandage on it and it will be all right.”
Ivy took the finger carefully in her chubby little hands, wanting to see the cut closely. Her fingers tingled. “If it hurts too much, Mother, I can cut up the rest of the bananas.”
Her mother laughed. “Don’t worry. I was almost done anyway. I’ll just get this covered up and start cooking the pancakes. I’m pretty hungry, too.” She pulled her hand away from Ivy. “Hmm, the bleeding seems to have stopped already. Maybe I don’t really have to put a bandage on it. Hey, what’s that?” She reached out to touch Ivy’s new necklace.
Ivy smiled. She was pretty sure her mom was pretending, but she could pretend right along with her. “The Tooth Fairy.”
Her mother frowned and her forehead wrinkled. “The Tooth Fairy? But you didn’t lose a tooth.”
Ivy shook her head. “But I woke up and I had the necklace on, just like when the Tooth Fairy comes and brings me a dollar for my tooth.”
“Well, all right then.” Her mother shook her head and stood up, then looked at her hand again. “I guess this is closed up already. I can just finish up these bananas. Go sit at the table, Ivy, and I’ll bring you your breakfast.”
“Okay, Mother.” Ivy walked over to the table and sat down carefully, smoothing her skirt. It was going to be a good day.
—
Laura woke at midnight on the day of her fifth birthday.
Moonlight was streaming in through her window onto her face (which was odd, because there were plants outside that blocked the sky). She started to sit up, then felt something against her neck and reached up to find it.
There was a necklace around her neck. How very strange. She hadn’t been wearing a necklace when she went to bed. Where had it come from? She looked up at the moonlight, trying to see the moon, but the plants still blocked her view. Frowning, she looked at the necklace again. It was shaped like a crescent moon. Maybe it was a moon-necklace. There was a little stone dangling in it, too. There was just enough illumination that she could tell it was a see-through pinkish stone. Was that what a moonstone was? No, that didn’t make sense. Who would call something pink a moonstone?
She turned her head and squinted across the room to where her twin sister lay in her own bed. Amy didn’t seem to have been awakened by the moonlight—in fact, it was only shining on Laura, even though they both had windows at the heads of their beds. She squinted, but she couldn’t tell whether Amy had a necklace on or not. Probably not. She didn’t have the moonlight.
Laura yawned and tried to think about it some more, but the moonlight was fading and she was getting tired. She would think about it in the morning. That was their fifth birthday. She smiled as she fell asleep. It would be a good day.
When she woke up, Amy was also up, and she was yelling and jumping up and down with excitement. Laura jumped out of bed quickly. “What did we get?”
“Look!” Amy held out a dress, blue with little yellow flowers spangled all over it. “Isn’t it pretty? You got one too!”
Laura looked at the foot of her bed and groaned. Her dress was purple with pink flowers. She hated purple. But at least it would go with her new pink necklace. Maybe that’s why she’d gotten this necklace. She looked down as she put on her new dress to check that the necklace was still there, and it did match the pink flowers on her dress perfectly. That was nice.
She looked up to find Amy staring and frowning at her. She realized that no, Amy definitely did not have a necklace. “Where’d you get that?” Amy asked in a sharp voice.
“I don’t know,” said Laura, automatically lifting her hand to the necklace to protect it. She and Amy weren’t supposed to have different things. They were twins, as everyone liked to remind them. “It just showed up. Didn’t you get one to go with your dress?”
Amy shook her head. “I’ve never seen anything like that. Who gave it to you?”
“I don’t know,” Laura said again. She was annoyed that Amy didn’t believe her. “I don’t know where it came from.”
Amy shrieked and ran toward her. Laura tried to run away, but there was nowhere to go. Amy grabbed the necklace and pulled on it. “You’re not supposed to have that! I’m telling Mom!”
Laura screamed. The necklace wasn’t coming off, but it hurt. “Ow! Let go of me! I’m telling Mom you’re hurting me!” She pushed at her sister so she would let go. Amy yelled and pushed back in response, neither of them letting go of the necklace. They kept at it until the door burst open and their mother appeared in the doorway.
“Girls! What is the meaning of this fighting?” She picked Amy up. Amy kicked her feet and wouldn’t let go of Laura’s necklace, so she had to stagger forward. “It is your fifth birthday and your father is trying to cook you a special birthday breakfast. Don’t you like your dresses? Amy, what are you doing? Let go!”
With their mom’s help, Laura finally broke free of Amy. Her neck still hurt where the necklace had been rubbing against it and she was crying a little bit. “She’s not supposed to have that!” Amy yelled. “Make her give it to me!”
“What do you have, Laura?” her mom asked sternly.
Laura rubbed at the back of her neck. “A necklace. I don’t know where it came from.”
Their mom put down Amy, who had stopped struggling. She held her hand out to Laura. “Let me see it.”
Laura swallowed, and her stomach felt bad, but she took off the necklace and handed it to her mom. “Laura, where did you get this?” her mom asked.
“I don’t know!” Laura was getting really tired of explaining that. “I just woke up and I was wearing it.”
“Laura, nice jewelry like this doesn’t come out of nowhere. Did someone give this to you?”
“No!” Laura thought about the moon. “I don’t think so.”
“Get me one, Mommy!” Amy said. Her face was still red with anger.
Their mom shook her head. “I don’t even know where to get something like this. Did you find this on the playground, Laura?”
“No!” Laura was getting mad, now, not just because Amy had fought with her but because her mom didn’t believe her. “It’s magic. It’s mine! Give it back to me.”
“Laura, this doesn’t belong to her.” Her mom closed her hand on the necklace and Laura started crying again. “Now don’t cry. It’s just a necklace. You have pretty new dresses and lots more presents.” She started to turn away.
Laura didn’t know what she was going to do with the necklace, but she was pretty sure she wouldn’t like it. So she reached out her hands for it. At first nothing happened, then her mom made a little surprised sound and opened her hand. The necklace fell down right into Laura’s hands, even though they were far away. Laura quickly closed her hands on the necklace and hid them behind her back. “It’s okay, Mommy,” she said. “I don’t have to wear it.” She walked back toward her bed and the shelf where she kept her jewelry box.
“You don’t get to have it!” cried Amy.
Her mom sighed. “Okay, Laura. Put it away. But if I hear about someone looking for a silver moon necklace, you’re going to have to give it back.”
“Okay,” said Laura. She put the necklace in her jewelry box. She knew it was hers and that no one was going to be looking for one like it.
She snuck back to her room a few times that day to look at the necklace and how pretty it was in her jewelry box. She wanted to wear it, but she knew she would get in trouble if someone saw her with it on. So she just looked at it. Until the time she didn’t see it there anymore.
She looked across the room. Amy had a jewelry box exactly like hers. As she looked at it, the top opened. Laura’s eyes widened. Her necklace flew out—her necklace! Amy had put it in there!
But it flew into Laura’s hands and stayed there. She stared at it for a few minutes.
Then she hid it under her mattress, where Amy wouldn’t be able to find it, and ran back out to her birthday party.
Did you enjoy this story? You can read more stories in this world or see all my fiction posted at Dreamwidth!
World: Moonsisters
Word count: 3,500
Rating: G
Prompt:
rainbowfic Moonlight 6, Enigma; Antique Brass 11, How is that even possible? / You're still asking that question? / I'm still hoping for an answer.Notes: Please ignore the fact that they are all very mature and have huge vocabularies for five-year-olds XD
Angel woke at midnight on the day of her fifth birthday.
Moonlight was streaming in through her window onto her face. She started to sit up, then felt something against her neck and reached up to find it.
Her hands closed on something cool and smooth, but with pointy bits. She lifted it up into the strangely bright moonlight to look at it. Her mouth dropped open in childish awe. It was a necklace—the chain looked like silver, and so did the pendant, a shiny crescent moon. There was something dangling in the middle. She tapped it with her fingernail and saw it shiver, then lifted it closer to her eyes.
It was a piece of crystal, clear and flawless, shaped into a neat point. A diamond? It was a really big diamond, if a diamond was what it was. Angel’s excitement mounted, and then the moonlight began to fade away, and with it her wakefulness. Hand still clutched around the mysterious new necklace, she fell back against her pillow and closed her eyes.
She dreamed of the moon, who was a woman and her friend. They played for hours, just the two of them.
When she woke up in the morning, her mother was calling her for birthday breakfast and the necklace was still there. She jumped up in great delight. It was her birthday! She was five years old! And she already had her first present.
“Daddy! Mommy!” she cried as she ran downstairs, pulling the necklace from where it had fallen down the neck of her pajamas. “Look!”
“There’s my birthday girl!” Her father swept her up into a big hug. “What do you have there, pumpkin?”
Beaming, she held it out for him to see. “I already have a present! Isn’t it pretty?”
Her daddy frowned. Why was he frowning? He put her down, then held his hand out for the necklace. “Let me see that, sweetheart.”
Angel pulled the necklace up and past her braids and held it out to her daddy. Her mommy had come up by this time, too, and they both looked at the necklace together. “Where did you get that, honey?” her mommy asked. “Did you find it somewhere.”
Angel shook her head. “I got it last night. It’s a present.”
Her daddy frowned at her, not looking at the necklace anymore. “Who gave it to you? A boy?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Charles,” said her mommy. “She’s much too young for that.”
“That’s exactly the problem,” said her daddy. He shook the necklace in her hand. “Did some man give this to you? An older person?”
He seemed mad. But he wasn’t mad at her. Angel shook her head again, making the beads on her braids rattle. She was confused and a little scared. “Nobody gave it to me.” She thought about her dream. “It’s a present from the moon. The moon gave it to me last night.”
“The moon can’t give presents, honey,” said her mommy.
“It came from the moon,” Angel repeated stubbornly. Where else could it have come from?
Her daddy took a deep breath. “Okay, Angel. When did the moon give it to you?”
“In the middle of the night,” Angel said, happy that her daddy was listening to her now. “I woke up and I was wearing it.”
Her mommy gasped. “Did someone come in our house?”
“Nobody came in, Mommy,” said Angel, even though her mommy was talking to her daddy and not to her. “The moon just put it in.”
“Angel, honey, if the moon talks to you again, you tell me, okay?” said her daddy.
“Don’t be silly, Daddy.” She grinned. “The moon can’t talk.” She could smell the pancakes her mommy had made her, and she was getting hungry.
“She can’t keep this,” said her daddy to her mommy.
“Maybe someone lost it,” said her mommy. “Put it somewhere so we can find it again when they look for it. It’s a really pretty necklace. That might be real silver.”
“I’ll hang it by the back door,” said her daddy. He turned to walk away.
Angel screamed. “No, Daddy! It’s my necklace! I have to wear it!” She forgot how hungry she was, only scared that her daddy would take the necklace away and she would never be able to wear it again. It was a present from the moon, and things from the moon were important.
“Angel, be quiet,” said her daddy. He was mad at her, now, she could tell. But she didn’t understand why. “This isn’t yours, you understand? This necklace belongs to somebody else.”
“No!” she screamed. “It’s my necklace! The moon gave it to me!”
He grabbed her by the arm and smacked her on the butt. “Stop screaming!”
“Charles, it’s her birthday!” said her mommy, grabbing her by the other arm.
“I’m getting rid of this necklace,” he said. He let go of her and marched to the trash can. He dropped it in.
Angel screamed again and pulled her arm away from her mommy. She ran to the trash can and looked inside. But she couldn’t see her necklace anymore. It had fallen in among the eggshells and fruit cartons and all the other things in the trash.
She started to cry and her daddy picked her up. “It’s okay, Angel,” he soothed. “It’s just a necklace. You have a lot of other presents. Maybe someone else got you a necklace, even nicer than that one. Don’t you want your pancakes?” He put her down on her chair, right in front of a big stack of pancakes.
She ate her pancakes, because she was hungry, but she didn’t forget about the necklace and she knew there could never be a necklace as nice as that one. That one was special. She pretended to forget about it while she had her birthday party and opened her presents and even while she went to bed, but she promised herself that she would wake up after her parents went to bed and find the necklace. She would dig through all of the trash if she had to.
When she woke up, though, the necklace was on her neck again. She gasped and held it tightly. It really was a magic necklace.
Smiling, Angel went back to sleep.
—
Charlotte woke at midnight on the day of her fifth birthday.
Moonlight was streaming in through her window onto her face (which was odd, because the shutters were closed and the curtains drawn). She started to sit up, then felt something against her neck and reached up to find it.
It was a necklace. She lifted it up into the light, her eyes widening. It was a crescent moon—she liked that word, crescent. And inside the crescent moon was a shiny stone. She turned it around in the light. It looked black, except that it was shiny silver in the light. It was the prettiest thing she’d ever seen.
The moonlight began to fade. Charlotte yawned and lay back on her bed, tucking the necklace into the neck of her pajamas.
In the morning she woke up and remembered it was her birthday. She wore the necklace the whole time she was going to the bathroom and putting on the outfit she’d picked out for the special day. Downstairs she could hear her parents talking. “She doesn’t want a Barbie,” her mom was saying.
“Don’t be silly,” her dad said. “Every little girl wants a Barbie. And it’s just one. I didn’t get her the whole dream house or anything.”
Charlotte was a little disappointed to hear she was getting a Barbie for her birthday. Her mom was right—she didn’t want one. Maybe Angel would like it.
Then she got confused, because her parents were all the way downstairs and she couldn’t usually hear them from up here unless they were shouting, which they weren’t. Now they were talking about what to make for breakfast and wondering if they should wait for her to come make a request. She wanted French toast, she thought. “I think I’ll make some French toast,” her mom said.
Charlotte shivered and took off the necklace so she could brush her hair. Her dad was saying something, but it cut off as soon as she took the necklace off. She stared at it, then put it back on. “…Fried eggs might be better,” her dad was saying.
French toast, thought Charlotte firmly.
“Or French toast,” her dad said. “She’ll probably like that. She is five, after all.”
Charlotte swallowed and took the necklace off again. Now she couldn’t hear her parents anymore. She hung up the necklace carefully on a special jewelry holder she had, then went downstairs. “Hi, sweetie,” her mom said when she came into the kitchen. “Happy birthday. I thought I might make some French toast.” She already had the eggs out and the stove on. “What do you think about that?”
“That’s just what I wanted,” said Charlotte happily. She thought about the necklace hanging upstairs in her room. She would put it back on later.
She didn’t put it on in time for Angel’s party, though (which was also her party, because they were both five). She thought about it, but she had a fun time at the party so she decided she didn’t need to wear the necklace until later that night. But Angel told her, “I want to tell you about something,” and Charlotte thought it might be about the necklace.
“I want to tell you about something, too,” said Charlotte. Angel smiled and they promised they would talk about it tomorrow. They always spent all their time together, but at the birthday party there were too many other people (their whole kindergarten class had been invited) so they didn’t talk about it then. They would save it for later, when it would be more private and special.
Charlotte knew Angel was thinking the same thing as she was, even though they didn’t say it out loud.
—
Ivy woke at midnight on the day of her fifth birthday.
Moonlight was streaming in through her window onto her face (which was odd, because her window was facing the wrong way for the moon to shine into it, usually). She started to sit up, then felt something against her neck and reached up to find it.
She inspected it carefully. It appeared to be a necklace with a pendant in the shape of the crescent moon. There was a small polished stone dangling from the inside of the moon. She knew the name of this stone… it was green and striped… malachite, that was it. She’d read about it in one of her books. It wasn’t a particularly expensive stone or anything. But it was pretty. She liked it a lot.
She wondered who had given it to her. She hadn’t been wearing it when she went to sleep. Maybe her parents had come in the middle of the night and put it on for her, like the Tooth Fairy. Ivy smiled and lay back against her pillow as the moonlight began to fade. She would pretend it was magic just like the Tooth Fairy.
When she woke up she got dressed in the clothes her mother had picked out for her, then went downstairs for breakfast. “Hi, sweetie,” said her mother without looking at her. She was chopping up bananas, though, so Ivy thought it must be time for her favorite breakfast—banana pancakes. “Happy birthday.”
“Thank you, Mother. What’s for breakfast?”
“Your favorite.” This time her mother did look up as Ivy clapped and smiled. Then she made a hissing sound with her teeth. Ivy knew that was a bad sound.
Her mother dropped her knife and walked quickly to the sink. She made the hissing sound again as she ran the water over her hand. Ivy hurried over to make sure her mother was okay. “Did you hurt yourself, Mother?”
“It’s all right, Ivy,” her mother said. “Just a little cut.” She turned off the water and crouched down so Ivy could see the cut on her finger, where the blood welled up slowly. “I’ll put a bandage on it and it will be all right.”
Ivy took the finger carefully in her chubby little hands, wanting to see the cut closely. Her fingers tingled. “If it hurts too much, Mother, I can cut up the rest of the bananas.”
Her mother laughed. “Don’t worry. I was almost done anyway. I’ll just get this covered up and start cooking the pancakes. I’m pretty hungry, too.” She pulled her hand away from Ivy. “Hmm, the bleeding seems to have stopped already. Maybe I don’t really have to put a bandage on it. Hey, what’s that?” She reached out to touch Ivy’s new necklace.
Ivy smiled. She was pretty sure her mom was pretending, but she could pretend right along with her. “The Tooth Fairy.”
Her mother frowned and her forehead wrinkled. “The Tooth Fairy? But you didn’t lose a tooth.”
Ivy shook her head. “But I woke up and I had the necklace on, just like when the Tooth Fairy comes and brings me a dollar for my tooth.”
“Well, all right then.” Her mother shook her head and stood up, then looked at her hand again. “I guess this is closed up already. I can just finish up these bananas. Go sit at the table, Ivy, and I’ll bring you your breakfast.”
“Okay, Mother.” Ivy walked over to the table and sat down carefully, smoothing her skirt. It was going to be a good day.
—
Laura woke at midnight on the day of her fifth birthday.
Moonlight was streaming in through her window onto her face (which was odd, because there were plants outside that blocked the sky). She started to sit up, then felt something against her neck and reached up to find it.
There was a necklace around her neck. How very strange. She hadn’t been wearing a necklace when she went to bed. Where had it come from? She looked up at the moonlight, trying to see the moon, but the plants still blocked her view. Frowning, she looked at the necklace again. It was shaped like a crescent moon. Maybe it was a moon-necklace. There was a little stone dangling in it, too. There was just enough illumination that she could tell it was a see-through pinkish stone. Was that what a moonstone was? No, that didn’t make sense. Who would call something pink a moonstone?
She turned her head and squinted across the room to where her twin sister lay in her own bed. Amy didn’t seem to have been awakened by the moonlight—in fact, it was only shining on Laura, even though they both had windows at the heads of their beds. She squinted, but she couldn’t tell whether Amy had a necklace on or not. Probably not. She didn’t have the moonlight.
Laura yawned and tried to think about it some more, but the moonlight was fading and she was getting tired. She would think about it in the morning. That was their fifth birthday. She smiled as she fell asleep. It would be a good day.
When she woke up, Amy was also up, and she was yelling and jumping up and down with excitement. Laura jumped out of bed quickly. “What did we get?”
“Look!” Amy held out a dress, blue with little yellow flowers spangled all over it. “Isn’t it pretty? You got one too!”
Laura looked at the foot of her bed and groaned. Her dress was purple with pink flowers. She hated purple. But at least it would go with her new pink necklace. Maybe that’s why she’d gotten this necklace. She looked down as she put on her new dress to check that the necklace was still there, and it did match the pink flowers on her dress perfectly. That was nice.
She looked up to find Amy staring and frowning at her. She realized that no, Amy definitely did not have a necklace. “Where’d you get that?” Amy asked in a sharp voice.
“I don’t know,” said Laura, automatically lifting her hand to the necklace to protect it. She and Amy weren’t supposed to have different things. They were twins, as everyone liked to remind them. “It just showed up. Didn’t you get one to go with your dress?”
Amy shook her head. “I’ve never seen anything like that. Who gave it to you?”
“I don’t know,” Laura said again. She was annoyed that Amy didn’t believe her. “I don’t know where it came from.”
Amy shrieked and ran toward her. Laura tried to run away, but there was nowhere to go. Amy grabbed the necklace and pulled on it. “You’re not supposed to have that! I’m telling Mom!”
Laura screamed. The necklace wasn’t coming off, but it hurt. “Ow! Let go of me! I’m telling Mom you’re hurting me!” She pushed at her sister so she would let go. Amy yelled and pushed back in response, neither of them letting go of the necklace. They kept at it until the door burst open and their mother appeared in the doorway.
“Girls! What is the meaning of this fighting?” She picked Amy up. Amy kicked her feet and wouldn’t let go of Laura’s necklace, so she had to stagger forward. “It is your fifth birthday and your father is trying to cook you a special birthday breakfast. Don’t you like your dresses? Amy, what are you doing? Let go!”
With their mom’s help, Laura finally broke free of Amy. Her neck still hurt where the necklace had been rubbing against it and she was crying a little bit. “She’s not supposed to have that!” Amy yelled. “Make her give it to me!”
“What do you have, Laura?” her mom asked sternly.
Laura rubbed at the back of her neck. “A necklace. I don’t know where it came from.”
Their mom put down Amy, who had stopped struggling. She held her hand out to Laura. “Let me see it.”
Laura swallowed, and her stomach felt bad, but she took off the necklace and handed it to her mom. “Laura, where did you get this?” her mom asked.
“I don’t know!” Laura was getting really tired of explaining that. “I just woke up and I was wearing it.”
“Laura, nice jewelry like this doesn’t come out of nowhere. Did someone give this to you?”
“No!” Laura thought about the moon. “I don’t think so.”
“Get me one, Mommy!” Amy said. Her face was still red with anger.
Their mom shook her head. “I don’t even know where to get something like this. Did you find this on the playground, Laura?”
“No!” Laura was getting mad, now, not just because Amy had fought with her but because her mom didn’t believe her. “It’s magic. It’s mine! Give it back to me.”
“Laura, this doesn’t belong to her.” Her mom closed her hand on the necklace and Laura started crying again. “Now don’t cry. It’s just a necklace. You have pretty new dresses and lots more presents.” She started to turn away.
Laura didn’t know what she was going to do with the necklace, but she was pretty sure she wouldn’t like it. So she reached out her hands for it. At first nothing happened, then her mom made a little surprised sound and opened her hand. The necklace fell down right into Laura’s hands, even though they were far away. Laura quickly closed her hands on the necklace and hid them behind her back. “It’s okay, Mommy,” she said. “I don’t have to wear it.” She walked back toward her bed and the shelf where she kept her jewelry box.
“You don’t get to have it!” cried Amy.
Her mom sighed. “Okay, Laura. Put it away. But if I hear about someone looking for a silver moon necklace, you’re going to have to give it back.”
“Okay,” said Laura. She put the necklace in her jewelry box. She knew it was hers and that no one was going to be looking for one like it.
She snuck back to her room a few times that day to look at the necklace and how pretty it was in her jewelry box. She wanted to wear it, but she knew she would get in trouble if someone saw her with it on. So she just looked at it. Until the time she didn’t see it there anymore.
She looked across the room. Amy had a jewelry box exactly like hers. As she looked at it, the top opened. Laura’s eyes widened. Her necklace flew out—her necklace! Amy had put it in there!
But it flew into Laura’s hands and stayed there. She stared at it for a few minutes.
Then she hid it under her mattress, where Amy wouldn’t be able to find it, and ran back out to her birthday party.
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