The Moonlight Boy | Ferry's Tale # 1

The Fires of the Hills (part one)

The Fires of the Hills celebration has been around for over a hundred years, the first Sunday after mid-October. It was a great opportunity for the people of Goodharts to meet and spend long hours together in front of large meals.

For the Donovans, it was their first time in nine years to attend the celebration. Mrs. Donovan has been outdoing herself: she made delicious meat pie, fish soufflé, pumpkin juice and the fluffiest, most inviting sponge cake ever, filled with blackberry jam. The neighbors couldn't get enough of the delicious dishes, praising Mrs. Donovan's cooking skills with every bite.

Right in the middle,  the tents of Pride and Haughty families were settled; they were, after all, the wealthiest families in Goodharts. Under the pristine white tents, their tables were the most luxuriant and richest of all. Dishes no one knew how to pronounce, exotic fruits, and fine drinks placed on shimmering, golden trays, in perfect symmetry. The Mayor, Mr. Goody, the town's doctor, and the school's headmaster, Mr. Bell, were all the guests of the most famous families in town.

While the parents were enjoying the tasty dishes, the abundance of drinks and the nice company of their neighbors, the children gathered in a large crowd, right on the top of the hill.

It was a perfect autumn day, and the sun proved to be generous at that time of the year. Ferry, Matilda, and Ben also joined the loud group. Almost all children in Ferry's class were there, for no one wanted to miss such a big, pleasant gathering. Each child had made a kite for the annual contest. Some of them were helped by their parents. Others had to manage all by themselves. Ferry's was the shape of a raven. Matilda had made a kite the shape of a giant, green boot. As for Ben, he hardly convinced his father to help him build an astronaut-shaped one, coated with aluminum foil, the same type his mother used for cooking.

Nevertheless, the most spectacular kites were, as usual, those of Billy Pride and Cecilia Haughty, which had been bought long before the feast from the Big City over the hills. Billy's kite was a green dragon with a giant tail of golden little bells that made a playful jingle at every move. While Cecilia's kite was a huge butterfly with shiny wings, the colors of the rainbow.

Ferry looked for May the moment he'd arrived. He finally saw her, close enough to Cecilia, holding a gardenia kite, with sparkling petals. Ferry wished that, just for once, May could win the kite contest.

All children started to raise their kites long before the contest started, just to check if everything was all right. And it looked like Cecilia's butterfly-kite rose the highest. Even the kite's rope was special, wound on a cylindrical plastic handle. After letting the kite swing in the wind to everyone's admiration, Cecilia's hand got tired.

"Here! You hold my kite until I come back," she said, giving the kite's rope to May. "But be very careful," she continued in a menacing tone, "if you lose it, you'll no longer be part of my group. Nor of any other group in school. For I'll take care no one will speak to you again!" Then, she went to her family's tent to relax with a lemonade after the effort of holding the kite for so long.

As for May, she could barely hold the giant butterfly which was lugging her at every wind blow. She put her kite aside so she won't lose Cecilia's precious kite. For as it seemed, Cecilia was to be the kite contest's winner. But the kite was too big for a fragile girl like May. And no matter how hard she tried to tame it, a strong blast, coming from nowhere, pulled the kite from her hands, leaving her with teary eyes and blood on her delicate hands. The kite rose in the air with astonishing speed, becoming smaller and smaller on the clear, blue sky. May desperately ran after it, trying not to take her eyes away from its big wings. The other children also noticed the big butterfly, rising higher and higher in the clear sky and pointed to it, their fingers in the air. Not long after, Cecilia also noticed it. She headed towards May like a storm of rage, screaming at the sight of her precious kite.