Are you ready to meditate with Corrie?
Climb up into your bed and make sure that you're very,
Very comfortable.
Try and stay as still as you can and that way your body can start to relax.
You can start to let go of your day,
Slow down your mind and hopefully,
Eventually fall to sleep.
Stephanie had ran all the way home from school.
At the moment she was in track.
She loved it.
She practiced every Tuesday and Thursday on the track team and there was a track at school that she ran on,
Along with the rest of her squad.
She was trying to get faster and faster.
Her favorite was 400 meters.
400 meters was the whole way around the track,
But you had to be careful.
You couldn't run too fast at the beginning,
Otherwise by halfway round you would lose all your energy,
All your breath and you would get too tired to carry on the race.
She was trying to pace herself.
There was a technique to running track.
If she did 200 meters,
Which was half of the track,
Then she could just belt it out and run as fast as she could and she found that she was really,
Really good at that.
It was the 400 meters that was tricky,
So she was practicing.
She had ran all the way home from school.
It wasn't too far,
But by the time she got in,
She was hot and sweaty.
She decided to go upstairs and shower and put on her comfy clothes before she did anything else.
She hadn't got any homework that night,
Which was wonderful.
She'd done all her homework the night before,
So tonight was free.
She decided she was going to visit Moonbow Forest.
She sat down at the dressing table in her bedroom.
The chair that she sat on was a little bit squeaky and it reminded her that she needed to tell her dad to help her to fix the chair.
Maybe it needed some oil squeezing on it or something like that,
But it squeaked every time she sat in it,
Which was a little bit annoying.
Nonetheless,
She rolled the chair forward towards her desk,
Reached over to her jewelry box,
Took out her magical earrings and placed them on her dresser in front of her.
She looked at them for a moment and as she looked at them,
This funny thing happened in her mind where she got all of these memories that flooded into her mind quickly about different times that she'd been to Moonbow,
Different things that had happened,
All of the wonderful things that she'd eaten,
All the unusual people and creatures and all sorts of things that she'd met along the way.
She couldn't help but get an excitement feeling in her tummy.
What would she meet?
Who would she meet?
What would she eat today?
She put on the left earring first.
She instantly felt tingles starting to take place inside of her body.
She put the right earring on next.
She sat very,
Very still at her desk,
Didn't move a muscle and just went inside.
She went inside,
Meaning she focused all of her attention on the inside of her body.
To do this,
It helped if she closed her eyes and that way she could really feel everything that was going on inside of her body.
She closed her eyes and shut out the outside world.
She then took a big,
Deep breath and settled into all the tingly sensations that she felt inside of her body.
She had a big rush of energy that tingled all the way up her spine and made her hair stand up.
It felt like it made her hair stand up on end.
It didn't,
But that's what it felt like,
Like it was sending electricity all the way up into all of the little hairs on her head.
Her nose started to itch and twitch.
She could feel it in her fingertips and in her toes.
It got very,
Very strong today for some reason.
It felt like she was buzzing.
And then just as it got to the point where she felt like she was going to sneeze because her nose was so itchy,
She could see the veil,
The curtain between this world and Moonbow Forest there in front of her face.
It shimmered.
Its delicate,
Transparent material,
Whatever it was made of,
Shimmered in the light.
As she peered through the curtain,
She could make out some figures,
Trees,
Some shapes off in the distance,
But that was about it.
Stephanie took another big,
Deep breath.
With her left hand,
She moved the curtain to one side and stepped out of her world into the world of Moonbow Forest.
The first thing she felt was the grass underneath her feet.
That wonderful,
Spongy,
Soft,
Slightly prickly grass.
It always felt like a big,
Comfortable,
Soft rug underneath her feet,
Squishy and spongy.
She moved her toes around on the grass and just enjoyed the sensation.
This was all before she even opened her eyes.
Then she slowly opened her eyes and looked around.
Midnight was close by.
Midnight was one of the unicorns that lived there in Moonbow Forest.
Midnight started to walk over towards Stephanie.
Hello,
Stephanie,
Said Midnight.
Hi,
Midnight.
How are you doing?
Said Stephanie.
Just wonderful,
Thanks,
Said Midnight.
I've been given some instructions by Luna.
She felt that you were coming.
She wanted to show you something today.
But a meeting turned up.
She needed to go to a very special meeting.
All the unicorns were gathering.
They were making a few changes there in Moonbow Forest.
And she was needed.
So she sent me instead.
Stephanie said,
Oh,
I hope everything's okay.
Midnight said,
Oh,
Yes,
Everything's always okay here,
Stephanie.
Why don't you climb up on my back?
Where we're going today is quite far away.
We'll need to fly there.
You can tell me all about how you've been and what you've been up to.
Midnight moved down onto the ground,
Bending his front legs first,
And then followed by his back legs.
So he was low enough for Stephanie to climb up.
Stephanie got onto Midnight's back,
Held onto his mane,
Which was beautiful.
It was soft and long and brilliant white,
Like a gray white.
He was a lovely,
Lovely looking unicorn.
He was shimmery gray like the moonlight,
Quite deep like Midnight.
Hence his name.
He was a very handsome unicorn,
Very,
Very tall.
And that's why he had to get down on the ground so Stephanie could get up onto his back.
Within a couple of moments,
He was up in the sky.
Stephanie adjusted her body and held on with her knees,
Just a little bit tighter,
Along with the good grip that she had on his mane.
She felt safe,
Safe enough to enjoy the ride.
So,
He said,
What have you been up to?
Stephanie started to tell him all about track,
How she was practicing running,
How she loved it.
Ah,
He said,
Pacing is very important,
I agree.
Yes,
She said,
Exactly.
After a while,
They flew in silence and Stephanie focused on everything around her.
She loved flying in Moonbow Forest.
It was one of her favorite things.
If that was even possible,
Because everything there was so amazing.
I think you'll enjoy today,
Midnight shouted.
You're going to love it.
Any clues?
Stephanie said.
Midnight said,
Well,
He's a very funny character.
He,
Said Stephanie,
Yes,
He.
They flew over three different forests.
Midnight was right.
It was quite a ways away.
When they started the journey,
The sun was shining bright down on them.
And by the time they got to where they were going,
There was quite a few clouds in the sky.
The light had completely changed.
It was more of a shadow.
Everything looked cooler,
Not bright.
Everything was cooler,
Duller,
But it was still beautiful.
Finally,
Midnight landed in what looked like a large field,
A large field with trees,
Flowers,
Some hedges and bushes.
Nothing that Stephanie saw looked anything different than the other places that she'd seen in Moonbow Forest.
So at first she was a little bit confused.
But then Midnight flew around a building and on the other side of the building was a bunch of what looked like bearded guys,
Bearded men,
All doing different jobs.
Some of them were stacking hay.
Some of them were digging holes.
Some of them were building as if they were building another new building right next to the one that was big and giant and already built.
There was a big,
Big,
Big cornfield behind all of the buildings.
Some of the bearded men were in the cornfield chopping down the giant,
Giant stalks of corn.
Hmm,
It felt a little bit like a farm or something.
Everyone was so busy.
No one noticed Midnight landing on the ground in the middle of everything with Stephanie on his back.
Midnight leaned down onto his front knees and let Stephanie slide safely off his back onto the ground.
And that's when one of the men,
The bearded men,
Smiled and waved and dropped his pitch fork and ran over to Midnight.
As he got closer,
Stephanie realized that the bearded man was not a man at all.
He was a young boy.
A young boy with a very long beard.
How weird,
She thought.
Hmm.
She had a confused look on her face.
And that's the face that she had when she first met what was to be one of her best friends there in the future.
Hi,
He said.
Hi,
Said Stephanie.
She was looking up at Midnight,
Still with a very confused face.
What is this?
As if to say.
Who's this?
Who's this?
As if to say.
My name's Aboganesh,
Said the young boy.
Abog.
.
.
Abog-a-what?
He laughed.
He thought she was funny.
Aboganesh!
That's my name,
Aboganesh.
Oh,
Cool name,
Said Stephanie.
My name's Stephanie.
Oh,
Very nice.
Lovely name,
He said.
Welcome.
Welcome to this part of Moonbow Forest.
He opened his hands and did like a little spin,
As if he was showing her everything around him.
Thanks,
She said.
Not to be rude or anything,
But how come you have a beard?
Ah,
He said,
Grabbing hold of his beard with one hand,
And then laughed.
As he laughed,
He put his other hand on his tummy,
As if he was doing a full,
Deep,
Belly laugh.
Yes,
Right.
Yeah.
Well,
We all have beards here.
It's quite an intricate thing that goes on here in Moonbow Forest.
In this part of Moonbow Forest,
Anyway.
It's very,
Very intricate.
Midnight interrupted and said,
I have some things to do.
I'll be back shortly.
I'll leave you here with the Bogganesh.
You're in safe hands,
Stephanie.
Stephanie said,
Oh,
Okay.
But before she could say anything else,
Midnight was up and flying in the sky.
She thought maybe he needed to go back to be at the meeting that everyone was holding with Luna.
But either way,
She did feel safe with the Bogganesh.
He had really sweet,
Kind eyes.
They were very,
Very big and round and brown,
Deep,
Deep brown.
As brown as chocolate,
She thought.
And Stephanie loved chocolate.
His eyelashes were super long and thick and bushy.
And every time he blinked,
It was like he was opening up a chocolate egg or something.
His eyes were delicious,
She thought.
She wished she had eyes like that.
His eyes told stories.
The more she talked to him,
The more she couldn't take her eyes off his eyes.
It was like his eyes had a mind of their own.
He would be saying one thing,
But his eyes would be saying another.
Like his eyes were a poet or a magician.
Something magical.
So,
Said Stephanie,
Interrupting a Bogganesh at one point,
Can you explain why everyone has beards here?
By now,
Stephanie realized that the bearded men were not bearded men at all.
They were all bearded boys.
They were all probably around the ages of 10 to maybe 13,
Something like that.
A Bogganesh looked about 13.
He was wearing a bright yellow jumpsuit.
It looked like a cotton jumpsuit.
Very comfortable.
Quite loose.
And that's what everybody else was wearing.
They were all wearing bright yellow jumpsuits.
From far away,
With all the green on the ground and their bright yellow jumpsuits,
It would look like you were flying towards a lemon tree.
Of course,
It wasn't.
It was the bearded boys.
A Bogganesh said that the bearded boys is what they're all known as,
Bearded boys.
Oh,
Said Stephanie,
That's simple enough.
Then why is it that you have these beards?
His beard was literally down to his waist,
Super bushy,
Super long,
And very,
Very thick.
It kind of looked out of place,
But in the same breath,
It looked like it totally suited him.
It was very bizarre.
Obviously,
Where Stephanie was from,
No one at 13 had a beard like this.
Why do you all have beards?
She kept saying.
A Bogganesh finally said that the beards were for a specific type of bird.
I'll show you,
He said.
In the cornfields,
Which is where he took her,
There was lots and lots of birds.
The birds looked like they fed off the corn,
Or they did something with the corn,
But the birds were there,
Just flying around the cornfield.
They were bright blue birds.
A Bogganesh picked up a pair of shears that was on a table close by and chopped off his beard.
He placed the beard on the table.
Stephanie was amazed.
She was stood watching with her mouth wide open.
What on earth is going on,
She thought.
A Bogganesh grabbed a hold of Stephanie's hand.
His hand was warm and soft.
That's all she noticed.
And then he took her a few steps backwards.
Watch,
He said.
Three of the blue birds flew from the cornfield.
Together,
They flew down onto the table.
And together,
They picked up a Bogganesh's beard with their beaks.
And then together,
Still holding it,
They flew away into the cornfield with his beard.
Stephanie was very confused.
I don't understand.
What's going on?
She said.
They're called nester birds.
Nester birds make nester eggs.
Come with me.
I'll show you.
Basically,
We grow our beards.
We grow our beards and then we cut them off.
The nester birds collect our beards.
They use them for their nests.
They put their nests very secretly,
Strategically,
In different places in the cornfields.
They believe that they're safe in there.
Watch,
Follow me.
A Bogganesh grabbed a hold of Stephanie's hand once again and led her into the cornfield.
They didn't go too far before he stopped her.
He pointed down to the ground.
Down at the bottom,
On the ground,
In the middle of what looked like just a regular cornfield,
There was a bird's nest.
The bird's nests were clearly made from beards.
You could see they were the same color,
The same texture,
Same everything.
Why do they use your beards?
She said.
Oh,
Well.
It's funny.
What happens is the nester birds lay nester eggs.
The nester eggs grow into very,
Very big beard bushes.
Those beard bushes are what the beard boys sleep on.
So we grow our beards.
They take our beards.
They make nests with them.
And then when they lay their eggs,
Their eggs open up and hatch.
They don't hatch into birds.
They hatch into bearded bushes.
And the bushes grow so we can lay on those bearded bushes and sleep on them.
And in turn,
We grow our beards.
And then they take our beards and use them as nests to lay their eggs in.
And then their eggs hatch.
And then their eggs turn into bushes.
And then the bushes are what we sleep on.
So it's like a cycle.
It goes on and on and on and on and on.
Stephanie said.
But if their eggs turn into bushes,
How do the birds carry on producing?
If the birds lay eggs that turn into beard bushes,
Then what about the eggs not being other birds when they hatch?
Because if they don't lay eggs that turn into birds,
Won't they eventually go extinct?
Ah,
He said.
Good question.
Yeah,
Well,
You know,
That doesn't happen here,
He said.
The birds don't die.
They never die.
They have nothing to die from here in Moonbow Forest.
We don't really have death here,
He said.
You don't,
Said Stephanie.
No,
No,
We all kind of stay the same.
We change,
But we don't get old.
It's like a cycle,
He said again,
Like the circle of life.
It's a universal law,
You could say.
Universal law meaning we give our beards and we receive the beard bushes to sleep on.
We give them something and they grow and give us something.
We grow our beards for them to be of service and they grow their eggs which hatch and then turn into big giant bushes that we sleep on that are super comfortable.
They're like our own nests,
So to speak.
We grow our beards to make nests for the birds and the birds lay eggs that grow into beard bushes that we can sleep in.
We give and we take.
They give us their bushes to sleep in and we give them our beards so that they can grow eggs that turn into beard bushes that they can give us back.
We service each other in a way,
He said.
Wow,
Said Stephanie.
That's so nice.
Yeah,
Exactly.
And also,
A bonus,
Look at this,
He said.
He rummaged under one of the bearded nests.
He pulled out broken eggshells.
The eggshells were blue,
Just like the birds,
And he held them in his hand.
Then he put one in his mouth and chomped on it and Stephanie said,
Eww,
Gross.
Aboganesh laughed,
No,
It's delicious.
It's like sponge sugar.
You know how it gets so hard and crispy,
Just like an eggshell.
It's like eggshell,
But it's not.
It's sugary and sweet and it's crunchy in your mouth.
And then the best part is,
It melts.
Taste it.
Stephanie reached for a piece of the eggshell.
She put it in her mouth.
It was right.
It was super crispy,
Like the outside of a Cadbury's mini egg.
You know the tiny ones that you buy and then they have a shell on the outside and they're really crunchy.
It tasted just like that,
Except,
It tasted like pineapple.
It tastes like pineapple,
Said Stephanie.
Yeah,
He said,
They're great.
He reached down to a different nest and grabbed a bunch more.
He shared them with Stephanie.
He was right.
They were delicious.
Does everybody eat them?
Said Stephanie.
Oh yeah,
All the beard boys eat them.
It's part of the exchange.
It's part of what they give us back.
How long does it take to grow your beard back,
Said Stephanie.
She asked because she didn't know whether she was seeing things or whether it was something magical going on or what,
But his beard looked about two or three inches longer than it did,
Just like five minutes ago.
He grabbed a hold of a small beard and laughed and held onto his tummy again as if he was doing that same belly laugh.
Oh no,
It doesn't take long at all.
If it took long,
That would be horrible.
Can you imagine if it took me years to grow a beard?
Oh no,
That wouldn't work.
No,
It takes probably about a day before it'll be back to normal.
And then I can cut it off again whenever one of the birds need it.
The nester birds,
Well,
There's a lot of them.
You'll see.
You need to take a look when you fly back out of here,
When you fly home with Midnight.
Take a look.
You'll notice there's thousands and thousands of them,
All here in this big cornfield.
Why corn?
Said Stephanie.
Why not?
We could do so much with it.
We can make things with it.
We can build things with it.
We can do all sorts of stuff with it.
You can make rope with the stalks.
You can bash them down and wet them and then dry them.
And you can,
You can make walls with them.
You can do so much with it.
Look at it.
That whole building is made out of corn.
Stephanie looked at the giant building.
No.
Yeah.
He said.
How many are they of you?
Uh,
Maybe about 40,
I think.
Yeah,
About 40 of us.
Stephanie just looked around.
There were quite a lot of yellow jumpsuits here,
There and everywhere.
All of them seemingly very,
Very busy.
Oh,
Wow.
This is,
This is great,
Said Stephanie.
Yeah,
You'll have to come back.
Next time,
Maybe you'll grow a beard.
Stephanie was now barely laughing.
I don't think so.
Why not?
Said Aboganesh.
Girls don't grow beards.
They don't?
Stephanie took a look around again and noticed that there were no girls there.
They were all boys,
Not one single girl.
You do know girls,
Don't you?
Stephanie said to Aboganesh.
No,
Not really.
You're the first one I've ever met.
You smell nice,
By the way.
You smell like vanilla.
I like vanilla.
Stephanie blushed just a little bit.
Thanks,
She said.
Just then,
As if Midnight knew that Stephanie was feeling like she needed to leave.
He came back.
Did you guys have fun?
Said Midnight.
Yeah,
Said Stephanie.
It was great.
I love this place.
Fascinating,
She said.
The next time she looked over at Aboganesh,
His beard was longer still.
So weird,
She thought.
Very,
Very weird.
Right,
Well,
I hope to see you again,
Said Aboganesh.
He pulled out a small linen bag from the pouch he had around his waist and gave it to her.
She opened it up and it had lots and lots of blue nester eggshells in it.
Thanks,
She said.
These are delicious.
I know,
Right?
He said.
And then just like that,
Stephanie said goodbye to Aboganesh.
He waved for a long time.
As Midnight flew higher and higher and higher,
Further and further away,
She saw all the bearded men in their yellow jumpsuits.
And it did look like a lemon tree,
All the green around them.
And there he was,
Waving away,
Waving and waving and waving until she disappeared into a cloud.
She held tight to Midnight and smiled.
She felt like she'd just met someone that could possibly end up being a very good friend.
THE END
