Sleeping Moon

Some things, no matter how trivial, stay with you for life...

Every Saturday night, my nephews and niece would gather for their Taekwondo lesson at the open-air badminton courts near my parents' flat. After 10 pm, they would race back here in a clamour, wash up, take their Milo before heading home. If I were in, I'd make it a point to be there to bid my farewell.

There was one time, my eldest nephew was at the door wearing his shoes, when he caught a glimpse of the moon shining in the ebony, cloudless sky and exclaimed:" Look Ah Gu*, the moon!" Moving to the door, I lowered my head and peered under the eaves. Right enough, there was the moon, a scythe without a hilt, utterly naked in all her beauty.

"Well, that must be the sleeping moon", I wisecracked. "Sleeping moon?", I could almost hear the inquisitive mind of my nephew spinning. "Yup, you can see the moon laying down on its back don't you? That's the moon sleeping." My nephew snorted. He must be thinking what a weird Ah Gu he has.

*what an uncle (mother's brother) is called in hokkien