A young boy would wander around the empty desert every night
in the hopes of finding some food to fill his hungry belly. He had run away
from his parent’s compound just months before because he felt he had become a
burden. The whole family worked extremely hard to provide food for each other,
but many nights the family members would have to switch off who got their
stomach’s satisfied for the night. It was a disheartening environment, so the
young boy decided to leave in the middle of a summer night to start a life on his own. This would hopefully allow his family to be fed more frequently.
Becoming weary and exhausted, and quite frankly very hungry,
the boy started regretting his decision to leave his home. He had searched
night after night for small animals to trap or for some edible plants to
sustain his energy until the next day, but each dawn he became more discouraged
with his endeavors.
Sitting on a small rock, contemplating about his next move,
the young boy noticed a bright light in his peripheral vision. Not thinking
much about it, he stooped even further; until the light became so bright he
could not look away. The young boy slowly turned his neck and head to the left
where he gazed upon the moon, just feet away from his body.
The moon gave a soft smile and looking straight into his
eyes asked him, “Why do you hang your head so low, young boy?”
With a long pause before the boy replied, he said, “I
have been searching the desert for food all night long and have failed to find
any.”
The moon heard his reply with anticipation because she had
watched him every night as he heartily searched the barren land. She quickly
replied in her mellow voice, “Young boy, come closer to me, for I am made of
meat.”
The boy looked puzzled.
“Yes, it is true! Come take a taste,” the moon told the boy.
Walking over and touching the moon, the boy took a big chunk
out of the left side of the majestic circle. He put the piece in his mouth, but
as he swallowed, he tasted nothing. Looking up to the moon’s eyes, the young
boy was about to speak, but the moon cut him off with her laughter.
“Young boy, you must believe I am made of meat in order for
my substance to taste like meat and sustain your bones,” the moon quickly said as she giggled.
The boy squinted his eyes, wishing for the moon to turn into
meat and slowly placed another chunk of the moon onto his tongue.
The boy screamed with excitement, “It worked!”
The boy turned into an old man out in the abandoned
desert by the grace of the moon’s kindness.
Author's Note: This story was inspired by "
Why the Moon Waxes and Wanes" from the Nigerian Folklore unit in the Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbook. In the story, there is a poor old lady who is starving and finds comfort in the moon's meat. Once the moon becomes so small, the townspeople get disappointed and angry. They end up stopping this exchange between the old lady and the moon, which leaves the woman hungry and the moon lonely. In my story, I wanted to keep the moon character the same, but change the old woman into a young boy. After reading the original story, I was reminded of the children's story called The Giving Tree. I took the theme of the children's story and meshed it with the Nigerian folktale.
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