26

A new day. A new life continues.

"Moonie!  Wake up Moonbeam.  Moon River, wider than a mile, can't wait to see you smile.  Moon baby wake up and give me a big Moon smile."  I opened one eye and tried to focus on Xena. 

It was just before dawn and Xena was sitting on the floor of the van with her feet hanging down to the ground.  Rosie was sitting next to her with an intense look on her face, trying to wake me up I suppose.  It couldn't be 6 o'clock, it was too dark still.

"Moonbeam, Moonlight, light of my life, shine on harvest Moon. Shine on, shine on harvest moon, for me and my gal Xena."  Woof went Rosie, I suppose in accompaniment. 

"You are now baptised Moonbeam Esquire.  For the rest of our lives you're Moonbeam, Moonie for short, Moondoggie for Rosie, Moon Light for your drivers license.  Here."  She gave me what looked and felt like a drivers license in the dark.  It could be for all I knew.  Where she obtained, or manufactured a license I wouldn't ask. 

"I'm not Lord Byron or any of those other guys you made me?"  I asked.

"Of course not, silly, you weren't ever any of them, but you are really Moon Light, not to say L-I-T-E."

I sat up and faced her in the slowly, slowly lighter and lighter day.

"Xena.  I've always have been named after the King of Troy's eldest.  I have no problem with Hec..."

"Shhh!  You know that we won't go to the past.  No more past.  Only now and the future.  No Illiads for us.  Our new lives depend on who we are now, not who we were in the silent, dark, deadly, empty past.  No more past."  She had a fierce look leaning towards me.  Her hand had found my armed and was squeezing so tightly that I had to pull it away to get some feeling back into it.  It was grey light out now.  Rosie wagged her tail at me and licked my hand after I pulled it out of Xena's grasp.

"So," I said, "are you still Xena Warrior Princess?"

"Of course. Silly.  I'm always Xena.  I'll never change.  Just the world.  And fortunately, you're the world to me so you can change a little.  Just a little.  Just a tad.  You can change back to who you've always been but didn't know it.  You've always been Moon Light, Moonbeam, Harvest Moon, Blue Moon, but it took Rosie to come and find us and let us know that you're the leader of the band.  The Moon Light Trio.  You, me and Rosie the wonderful, wandering, beautiful elf, beautiful magic dog who'll show us the right path ."

Woof!

"Now go run and think about everything.  Rosie and I will Salute the Sun while you're running, then we'll go to the bottom of the state and see what we can see.  Paint what you can paint. Read what we can read.  Sing a song of beauty, walk in beauty, and as Mr. Whittier says, the flowers will spring to blossom where she walks.  That's both Rosie and Me!"