Moonlight in Ohio,
Shining on the Wings

by Margaret E. Welsh © 2003

The phone rang. 9:30 was late for anyone to call. Sara hit the‘mute’ button on the VCR control and reached for the phone by her bed.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Sara, it’s Ann. The season’s started. I saw Mrs. Thomson tonight, perched in the big mulberry tree in the Winston’s back yard.”

“Really? She’s the first one out. What is she now? What’s she look like?” Sara hit ‘off’ and settled in to talk to her friend.

“She’s a beautiful Night Moth. Cobalt, sapphire and ebony wings, with just the tips silver in the moonlight. She’s not the solid Mrs. Thomson who worked at Melissa’s Diner anymore. I’d have pegged her as a regular Flyer, boring and brown like her husband, not at all a Moth in a mulberry tree with the moon behind her.”

Sara sighed. “I hope it’s a good omen for this spring. I hate wondering all winter.”

“Which forms they’ll take. I know that’s rough for you.”

“I think it’s rough on everybody, really. A time to live, a time to die, Preacher Tom is right… ‘eventually everyone dies, the changed no less than the unadorned. If we reach out for the change, we accept the risk of failure as the price we pay for splendor.’”

“That was a great sermon yesterday. He really nailed it. We’re so lucky to have him and his family here. He really understands,” said Ann.

“Well, he should. His mother changed two years ago, and he knows about the bad changes… ah, that’s hard. Thanks for calling.”

“Like he said, ‘No family wants that to happen to a loved one. No true friend wants to hunt down someone who was a dear companion since grade school. But, they are not friends and beloved family members now. They stalk, and we are prey, unless we get them fast and get them early.’ Nobody blames you, Sara.”

“I know that, and it helps, but I still see poor Jenny Allen, and what my group had to do. I hope I’m not on rotation at all this spring.”

“Probably not. It’s a big list. It’ll be a while before you come up again. I’ll probably come up before you do again. Nobody likes it, but we do it. While we’re on the subject, what do you think of Mickey Anders idea to have just the cops handle it?”

“No, absolutely not. Just Sheriff Jim and his department? That wouldn’t be right, not for them or us. We’re Unchanged, and we all know they were our friends and now they hunt us. If we Change, we all know if need be it will be our friends and family hunting us. I hated it, but I think we all need to take the responsibility.”

“Ha, that’s what I thought you’d say! In fact, I bet Mickey his proposal won’t be passed at the next town meeting.”

“Ok, what’d you bet him?”

“Two of my cheesecakes against an oil change for the Datsun.”

“I hope he likes changing oil! He’s going to lose that one. Hey, are you going to go out with him?”

“Not yet. I think I will, but I want to see how he is about losing. How he takes it. I’m sure his idea won’t pass.

“I hope not. This town, we’re family, we have to do for each other. It’s not like we can just ‘let somebody else do it’, like we lived in Cincinnati or somewhere.”

“It’s good we’re a small place – I don’t think outsiders would understand us anymore. It’s a pity about Amtrak and all, but my mother remembers the problems around the first Changes. In fact, she showed me last week - she kept a sort of scrapbook. It’s a lot easier now.”

“She kept stuff? That’s so great! My parents hardly say anything about the change, even though Grandma Taylor was one of the first Changed. I didn’t even know that until Uncle Larry told me.”

“Yeah, she had clippings and notes: how Mayor Finch got the folks together back when they planned the Interstate and the Extension, and bought up land by the exit. Some of it was swapped, too. A chunk of the land the government wanted was owned by old Mr. Todd, and when he Changed he left his land to the town. That’s the kind of stuff I like – the real people kind of stories.”

“Mr. Todd was nice. Remember him as an Eave-Hanger at the Library? Sometimes he would chirp to us kids as we went in or out. So _he’s_ the reason Mom and Dad got the Jet’s Pizza franchise at the exit. Damn, I never knew. Ann, you _gotta_ get a copy of her stuff into the Library.”

“Yeah, Mr. Todd’s a big reason we have the world out there, and then we can come home here. Imagine always having new people move in and strangers passing through. Remember when they wanted to consolidate the high school? Brrr! Now, with the Internet, CNN and all, back-fence gossip one place is big news 3,000 miles away. It sounds self-centered, but do I need to know about a factory fire in Peru? Does the world need to know about the gifts and the price we pay? I can see the headlines now – Bug-People!! Life After Death!! Tucker, The Town Where Nobody Dies!! Well, _duh! and wrong_ on all three counts.”

“I’ll top you. The confused scientists, the politicians, the FBI… Tucker stacked forty deep in strangers, all greedy for knowledge that isn’t theirs to know. How would we do our private business?”

“I know, I know… I wanted to call you ‘cuz the season’s starting. Just remember, sometimes it fails, like poor Jenny. But Sara, sometimes we’re lucky, like Mrs. Thomson perched in the high branches, shining in the moonlight.”

“Thanks, Ann. Thanks for calling. I worry and twitch, but… I like the spring, too.”

“See you tomorrow. ‘Night.”

“Thanks again, ‘night.”

x x x




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