After a full day of sledding, barely avoiding a serious accident, Leona decided to hit the sack early, more than ready for a good night’s sleep. But when she opened the door to her normally dark bedroom she saw that the floor and walls were illuminated, albeit dimly. She wondered if she had left a kerosene lantern on low, or maybe she had left a candle burning, but then she noticed the outline of her four-pane window on the floor and she quickly realized it was the Moon in the now nearly cloudless sky that was lighting up her room.
When Leona looked out the window, she saw that the Moon was almost full and that she could see trees and bushes clearly silhouetted against the snowy white background. She quickly changed into her pajamas, with only the moonlight to help her see. Then she plunked herself down in her little rocking chair near the window and just stared at the intriguing Moon. Occasionally it would pass behind a cloud, but not for long.
It was going on 7:30 when she noticed something moving at the far corner of the back field: a small deer, maybe eight or nine months old. It was pawing at the ground under an apple tree that was only 20 feet from the woods. Before long she saw another small deer come out of the woods to join what Leona assumed to be its sibling. A few seconds later three larger deer came out and all were clearly visible against the moonlit snow. The excited girl ran out of her room and down the stairs.
“Mama, Papa. Come quick. There are five deer playing near the woods. You can see them real good from my bedroom window.”
The Haleys ran up the stairs following their young daughter, while Arlene and Lillian rushed from their bedroom into their sister’s. Little Wally was downstairs, fast asleep in his crib. Next year, on his 6th birthday, he would likely be sleeping on the top bunk in Leona’s room.
“Aren’t they beautiful,” Margaret said when she saw the five deer silhouetted against the snow.
“I’ve never seen a prettier sight,” Murdock replied.
“Let me look,” Arlene said while impatiently pushing her way toward the window.
“Take it easy, Arlene!” her father said. “There’s plenty of room for everyone. You and Leona sit here on the floor, and Lillian, your mother, and I can look out over you.”
They stayed like that for almost a half-hour, watching the beautiful animals and laughing at the little fawns playing in the snow. When the deer were finished looking for apples under that far away tree, they made their way toward the Haley house. The playful deer came single-file along a path in the snow that according to Murdock they had made about two weeks earlier.
“From the looks of the tracks I saw,” he said, “they’ve been following that path almost every night.”
The two fawns led the way toward the house, with the larger deer following close behind. Third in line was a nearly grown doe, and behind it was a large doe and buck, most likely the mother and father. The five deer stopped under another apple tree that was about halfway between the woods and the house, 150 feet away.
“Look how big that buck is,” Lillian said. “I’ve never seen a deer that big before.”
“It is big,” Murdock agreed, although not as big as some he had seen in these woods.
In a while, one of the fawns walked toward the northwest corner of the Haley house where an evergreen bush was located.
“I think they’re gonna snack on your bushes, Maggie,” Murdock said.
“They’d better not, or I’ll snack on them. Murdy, where’s your gun?” Margaret said while winking at her husband and turning to see the expression on Leona’s face; as expected, it was a look of horror.
Murdock laughed and knew he needed to say something to reassure Leona.
“Don’t worry, Maggie, they won’t hurt your bushes. They just like to nibble on the tips.”
Soon the other fawn joined its sibling and both were nibbling away on the bushes outside Margaret’s bedroom window, just as Murdock predicted.
“Let’s go down and see if we can get a closer look at them,” Leona suggested.
“Okay, but be quiet,” Murdock warned. “Tiptoe down the stairs and stop dead in your tracks if you see them looking in the window.”
Upon entering their parents’ bedroom the children tiptoed to the window and were face-to-face with the small deer. One was eating away, while the other was looking around, keeping watch. Suddenly, Arlene sneezed and the heads and tails of the two small deer shot high into the air. Then they sprang away with their bobbing white tails providing a warning to the other deer. Soon, all were running toward the corner of the woods from which they came. The three larger deer went into the woods one by one, but the more courageous youngsters stopped under the apple tree and stood frozen, turning only their heads. Leona ran up to her room when the deer began running, and looked out the window, seeing only the two fawns. But after a while she saw the other deer slowly edging their way out of the woods to the tree where the fawns were now busy eating frozen apples.
“Yuck. How can they eat those rotten apples?” Leona asked her father when he came back into the room to check on her.
“Those frozen apples are like delicacies to the deer, dear. They taste as good to them as your mother’s baked apples or her homemade bread does to us. Well, I’d better be getting downstairs to help your mother with the dishes. Don’t stay up too much longer, honey,” Murdock said as he headed to the door.
“I won’t, Papa. But I’m not tired anymore, so I think I’ll read a little before I hop into bed.”
Murdock left the room, leaving his little girl sitting by the window. When Leona turned to look out the window one more time, she noticed the buck jump, as if startled by something. Then she saw what it was. Something had landed in the tall pine tree the large buck was standing under. The Moon was partly hidden behind a cloud, so at first she couldn’t tell what it was, but when the cloud had passed she could clearly see it silhouetted against the Moon. It was a Bald Eagle and it looked just like the one she saw that day.
“Hi, Mr. Eagle,” she said softly. “You must be the one that scared Mr. Perkin’s horse this afternoon. I owe you a lot; my grandma said you probably kept me from getting hurt. Oh, stay there; I’ve gotta show you to Mama and Papa.”
Leona rushed out her bedroom door and got to the top of the stairs in time to see her father still lingering near the bottom.
“Papa!” she yelled.
“Yes, Leona?”
“Never mind,” she said, remembering that she had already decided not to tell her parents about the eagle; thinking, if she did tell them, then she would also have to tell them about the near accident.
“Besides, they’d never believe me anyway,” she thought.
“Okay, dear,” Murdock said.
“Who are you talking to, Murdy?” Margaret yelled from the kitchen.
“Leona,” he answered.
“What’s she want now?”
“Nothing.”
“Go to bed, Leona,” Margaret yelled.
—1—
Now that Leona was wide-awake she decided to sit by the window and read Heidi: the book Hans had given her. She had started to read the novel soon after receiving it, but was only able to get a third of the way through it before being sidetracked by school and the equally time-consuming move to Glenburn. Twenty minutes after opening the book her head began to nod. Being sleepy, yet not wanting to go to sleep until she finished the chapter she was reading, she decided to lie down on the bed to read. However, after a few minutes and with only two more pages to read, she slowly nodded off.
The exhilaration the little girl felt in seeing the deer and eagle that night must have been enough to trigger a dream, because not long after falling asleep she found herself sitting on the back porch watching the stars. Then she saw a shooting star coming at her and she experienced a feeling of déjà vu. And it really was déjà vu because the same thing that happened to Leona two years ago was happening all over again. The colorful star turned as it neared the Earth, veering off and flying slowly, only a few feet above the ground, towards Margaret’s now snow-covered flower garden. After circling the garden the object flew slowly over the side and back field, as if it were surveying them. Then it made a slow turn at the corner of the back field, where Leona had first noticed the deer, and headed back toward her.
The next thing Leona knew she was surrounded by the star’s colorful mist and awoke from it on her shiny black comet. She was even more amazed by what was happening to her than she was the first time; maybe because in the back of her mind she wasn’t totally convinced of the reality of the first visit on the comet. After a while she spotted the Earth as it had appeared in her dream the previous time, and she began another journey of exploration, taking in more of the sights that had filled her mind since the first time she was aboard her comet. She saw the Concord Bridge; the Gettysburg battlefield; the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia; the White House, Congress and all the museums in Washington, D.C.; and many more of the historic sites and places she always wanted to visit. When satisfied with exploring those marvelous places, Leona decided it was time to check out the activities at her home in Glenburn. Her family was just sitting down in the living room after they had finished washing the supper dishes. Leona saw herself come down the stairs and walk past Lillian and her father to the window.
“Are the deer still there, Leona?” he asked.
“Yes, Papa. They’re still eating apples. The Moon went behind some clouds so it’s hard to see them now though. Do you think they’ll be back again tomorrow night?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. They seem to like our apples—and Maggie’s shrubs—so they’ll be back. I’m sure of that,” he said while glancing at his wife.
“Are you going after a Christmas tree tomorrow, Murdy?” Margaret asked.
“Sure am; if the weather holds up. It feels like we might be getting a storm tomorrow.”
“Who are you taking with you this year?”
“I’m thinking of taking Arlene again, if she wants to go.”
“Oh yes! Can I go, Mama?” Arlene asked.
“If you want to, sweetheart. It’s totally up to you.”
“Can I go too, Papa?” Leona asked.
“Not this year, Leona; maybe next. You’re still a little too young right now.”
“But I’m ten-and-a-half now.”
“My God! Are you that old already?”
“So, can I go?”
“Well, we’ll see, dear. But I promised Arlene she could go first.”
Leona was disappointed, so she turned around to look at the deer again.
“Papa, the deer are gone now,” she shouted.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. You’ll see ‘em again. Like I said: Most likely they’ll be back tomorrow night.”
—2—
Leona observed her family for a few more minutes before turning her attention away from the Earth to her comet. She marveled at the beautiful lights emanating from the shiny black rock, and at the heaven full of stars streaking by her comet like glowing bullets.
“This comet is pretty, but it isn’t near as pretty as my mother’s beautiful flower garden,” Leona thought.
All of a sudden she saw that a colorful mist was beginning to form, just fifteen feet from where she was standing. When the mist lifted, there was her mother’s flower garden sprouting toward the heavens. After only a few seconds it was fully-grown and in full bloom. But something about her mother’s garden was different. Then she realized that it was so much more brighter and much more colorful than she remembered it being. But it looked strange to Leona, sitting there all-alone on the black rock she was standing on.
It didn’t appear strange for long however. In no time at all there was grass growing all around her and it was spreading outward from the garden until there was nothing but a stunning yellowish-green blanket, for as far as the eye could see. Then, off in the distance, trees began to grow out of the ground until the little girl was surrounded by woods and fields identical to those surrounding her house in Glenburn; except, like the flowers, this vegetation was to her eyes more beautiful and possessed a greater spellbinding allure than that on Earth.
Leona gazed at her mother’s garden for a while and then she caught something out of the corner of her right eye. There under the apple tree near the woods was the herd of deer that she had seen that night. And just like the flowers and the other vegetation that magically appeared, the deer were even more beautiful than she remembered. For one thing, their velvety fur looked much softer and much shinier, and the white under their tails and bellies was as pure as new fallen snow.
Leona and the little deer’s parents watched in amusement as the younger ones were playfully running around the field and gracefully jumping into the air. A moment later the smallest one ran toward Margaret’s flower garden and began frolicking behind it. Then it slowly, almost shyly, walked from behind the garden toward Leona, with its cute little nose held high, curiously sniffing the air. When it got to Leona, the tiny deer gently rubbed its cold nose on her arm.
“That tickles,” she laughed, causing the startled fawn to jump back.
“Don’t be afraid, little fella,” she said in a softer voice.
Once against the small deer worked its way toward Leona and she reached out and rubbed its delicate neck.
“You like that, don’t you, Goldie?” she said to the deer whose fur appeared as shiny as gold.
The fawn seemed to nod yes and began rubbing against Leona’s right leg. She went to one knee and tenderly hugged the baby deer. And while doing that, she failed to notice that the other deer were slowly working their way toward her; that is, until she felt something rubbing up against her back. It was the other small deer, also wanting a hug from Leona. In a while the other three deer came closer to her and she began petting them. Soon the deer were frolicking in the fields with Leona. She chased after them as they ran this way and that around the fields. Two minutes later the deer sprinted toward the apple tree where she first saw them. For a while they circled it and then sprinted gracefully back to Margaret’s garden, and then to Leona’s side. Suddenly they took off for the woods, as if being spooked by something.
“Hey, where are you going?” Leona called out as she began chasing after the beautiful animals.
All at once the deer stopped running and began walking, albeit briskly along the woods road that her father would likely be taking in the morning to find the Haley Christmas tree.
“Come back here!” Leona yelled, just before she went into the woods.
But the deer kept going and, although she wasn’t sure why, she followed them along Haleys Trail to the Stream Road and then northward along it for quite a long ways, even crossing the School Road, a good half-mile west of Ohio Street and her little white schoolhouse. They were apparently headed to the oft-visited Kenduskeag Stream. To Leona the deer seemed determined, if not stubbornly intent on not stopping until they got to where they were going, following one path and then another until they came to a cluster of birch trees: the tallest Leona had ever seen. Then the deer stopped for a moment and slowly walked past those white trees into the woods.
When Leona came to the trees, she stopped and marveled at the width of the largest birch tree; it was wider than her. She walked up to it and put her arms around it, but it was so huge that she couldn’t get her arms all the way around. Eerily, a chill came over her body as if something spooky lingered in the forest beyond the trees.
“That’s strange,” she thought, “I’ve never been afraid of the woods before.”
Just then she heard a noise and sensed something fly past her head, seemingly only a couple of feet above it. Feeling a cold wind on her face, she looked up to see what it was; and then she awoke from her magical dream.