Day 8: Every pool in the rice fields holds a sky.

This little question came from a splasher who has just had a bath. Pim, when I sit in the bathtub, I can see the light from the ceiling down in the water. Can you see stars in a pond too, and do they live there? Pim read it out loud on the windowsill, and Nell sat up straight in her teacup. "That is just what I want to know," she said.

Nell had been thinking about the puddle on the garden path all day long. Last night she had seen stars shining in it, and in the shepherd's trough too. "The shepherd said the frogs know," she reminded Pim. "He said the frogs think the stars really live down in the water." So when the lamp was lit and the Night Wind came, Nell asked it to find them some frogs.

Steps of Water on the Hills

"I know just the place," said the Night Wind, and it lifted them up from the sill. They flew far over the dark land, and Pim sang into the warm night air. "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight." After a long while the wind dipped low over a valley. The hills on both sides were shaped into wide steps, one above another, all the way to the top.

Every step was a flat field full of water, with young green rice growing in it. And every field held a piece of the sky. The moon shone in one, and the stars shone in all of them, row after row, up the hillside. "Oh," breathed Nell, "the sky is everywhere." Pim zoomed down and skimmed across the top of a pool. His own little light zipped along in the water beneath him.

The Frog Chorus

All around them, frogs were singing. Some sang high and some sang low, and some only said one word over and over. Pim landed on a rice leaf at the edge of a pool, and Nell climbed down beside him. A round green frog sat on a mud bank right in front of them. She puffed out her throat and sang a deep note, and then she stopped and looked at them.

"You two are shining very close to my pool," said the frog. "Are you stars?" Pim laughed. "I am a firefly, and my name is Pim. But Nell is a star. She fell into our garden, and we are helping her find her place." The frog hopped closer and studied Nell with her big gold eyes. Then she hopped right into the water. Plip, plop, a sky in every pool.

She came up again in the middle of the pool, right among the shining stars. "This is where the stars live," she said. "Every frog knows it. In the daytime they hide in the mud, and at night they come up and shine. We sing to them all night long, so they will not be lonely down here." All the other frogs sang a little louder, all together.

Nell looked down into the pool. The stars were shining there, quiet and clear. One of them shone in the very middle, right next to the frog. "Do they ever fall?" Nell asked. "Do they ever get lost?" The frog thought hard. "Sometimes a pool dries up," she said, "and the stars go away. But when the rain comes, they always come back. The water keeps them safe."

Nell's Light in the Water

Nell leaned over the edge, and there she was in the water, a little star with bent points. The frog clapped her front feet together. "There, you see? You are in the pool already. Maybe this is your place." Nell looked at the star in the water, and then up at the stars in the sky. She did not know which ones were the real ones. Pim did not know either, so they wondered together.

Pim hopped onto a lily pad and spun around three times, just to watch his light spin in the water. The frogs laughed their croaking laughs, and the moon shook in the ripples. Plip, plop, a sky in every pool. "I think my place is up there," Nell said finally, pointing to the sky. "But it is nice to see so many stars down here too. Thank you for singing to them."

The frog bowed her green head. "Come back any night," she said. "We will sing for you too." Then the Night Wind rustled through the rice. "It is time," it said, "and morning is coming to the little house." Nell climbed onto Pim's back, and a small green piece of rice leaf stuck to her point as she went. Plip, plop, a sky in every pool, said the frogs as they flew away.

Pim sang over the dark hills, "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight." Far ahead, a small yellow light waited in the dark. It was Grandma Ada's lamp in the window, and it did not shake in any ripples. It just shone, steady and warm, telling them where home was. The wind set them gently on the sill beside the teacup and the pink shell.

Nell crawled into the thistledown with the bit of green rice leaf still on her point. She did not brush it off. Pim said, "The lamp is on. The door is near. And all is well here." From the garden pond, far off, a single frog began to sing. Nell smiled at the sound. Her light grew soft and low, and Pim's light grew soft and low beside it.

Skies to Find in the Water

Tonight, before bed, watch for a light shining in water, in a bath or a glass or a puddle outside, and see how it shakes when the water moves. Watch for the moon or a star in a pond, if you live near one, and listen for a frog singing to it. And watch for your own face in a dark window, with the lamp shining beside it. Then close your eyes, and let the frogs sing you slowly to sleep.

Day 9: The stars wink at a boy on the roof.

"Pim, there is still a piece of rice leaf on my point, and I want to keep it," said Nell. She held it up in the lamplight so Pim could see. It was small and green and a little dry now, from the pools on the stepped hills. Pim helped her tuck it into the thistledown beside the pink shell. "Your teacup is getting full of treasures," he said, and Nell laughed.

When the lamp was lit, the Night Wind came swirling in through the window. "Tonight I will take you to a busy place," it said, "full of roofs and chimneys and people." June sat up in bed and waved, and Grandma Ada blew them a kiss from her chair. Nell climbed onto Pim's back. Pim sang as they lifted off, "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight."

Chimneys and Washing Lines

They flew a long way, until the dark ground below began to sparkle. There were lights everywhere, in windows and on corners and along the streets. Cars hummed, and somebody somewhere was playing music. The Night Wind set them down on a flat rooftop, among flower pots and chimneys and a washing line full of socks. Pim zoomed between the socks, and Nell giggled at him.

In the middle of the roof, by a low wall, a boy sat with his knees pulled up and a blanket around his shoulders. He was looking up at the sky. Above the town, the sky was not very dark, and only a few stars showed over the rooftops. The boy was counting them on his fingers. He got to seven and stopped, because there were no more. Then he saw Pim's light, and his mouth fell open.

"A firefly," the boy said, "up here on our roof!" Pim blinked three times to say hello, and he flew closer. Nell peeked out from behind his wing. "And this is Nell," said Pim. "She is a star, and she fell out of the sky. We are looking for her place." The boy stared at Nell. Then he looked up at the few stars and back down at her. "Did you wink too much?" he asked.

"Wink?" said Nell. "What do you mean?" The boy pointed up at the brightest of the seven stars. "Look at that one," he said. "It is winking at me. My big sister says that is why stars twinkle. They are winking at whoever looks up at them." Pim and Nell looked. The star shimmered and flickered and shimmered again. Wink, wink, little star.

"Every night I come up here and wink back," said the boy. He closed one eye at the star, and then he opened it again. "My sister says if you wink back, the star knows you are there. Then it is not lonely, and neither am I." Nell tried winking with her light. She made it go bright and dim, bright and dim. The boy clapped his hands. "You can wink too!"

Nell looked around at all the glowing windows and the bright street lamps below. "Why are there only seven stars here?" she asked. "Over the rice fields, there were stars in every pool." The boy shrugged under his blanket. "There are only ever seven over our roof," he said. "But my sister went out to the country once, and she said there were hundreds there. She tried to wink at all of them, and her eyes got tired."

Pim wanted to try. He winked his light fast, then slow, then fast again, and he spun around the chimney pot. The boy laughed so hard that his blanket fell off. A cat on the next roof stretched and looked over at all the noise. "Wink, wink, little star," sang the boy, and Nell winked back at him, and then at the bright star in the sky. Nobody could tell who was winking first.

"I am not sure I ever winked up there," Nell said thoughtfully, after a while. "But maybe I did, without knowing." The boy nodded. "Maybe all stars do. My sister says so." Pim looked up at the few bright stars over the town. They shimmered and flickered, the same way they had before. He wondered how it would feel to be a star and wink all night long.

The Same Stars Far Away

The boy pulled his blanket back around his shoulders. "My grandmother lives very far away, across the sea," he said. "She says she can see the very same stars I see. When I wink at them, she says, they carry the wink to her." He looked up at the bright star again. "Do you think that is true?" Nell did not know. Pim did not know either. "It is a nice thing to think," said Pim.

Then the Night Wind ruffled the socks on the line. "It is time to go home," it said. The boy waved and winked at them both. "Wink, wink, little star," he called, and Nell winked her light back until the roof was far below. Pim sang, "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight." The town grew small, and the dark grew deep around them, and many more stars came out.

Far ahead, a small yellow light shone in the dark. It did not wink at all. It was the lamp in the window of the little house, steady and warm, the way it was every night. The wind set them down on the sill beside the teacup. Nell climbed into her bed, next to the shell and the rice leaf. "The same stars," she murmured, "far away across the sea."

Pim said, "The lamp is on. The door is near. And all is well here." He settled on the rim of the teacup and let his light go soft. Up above the garden, the stars shimmered and flickered. Nell gave one last slow wink up at them. Then her light stopped winking and only glowed, soft and still. The lamp glowed beside her, and Pim's glow grew slow, and slower, and then it rested too.