Pink Light Swimming Through the Dusk
It was Moon Festival day, and Nai Nai's kitchen smelled sweet and warm. Flour dusted the counter like snow. Outside the low window, Dolphin bobbed in the garden pond and watched with bright, curious eyes.
Nai Nai rolled a ball of soft dough and set it in the wooden stamp. "Now push," she said. Lily pushed with both hands. Out popped a tiny mooncake with a flower on top. Lily smiled a secret smile.
They made six little mooncakes in a neat row. Then Nai Nai brought out bright pink paper. "What shall our lantern be?" she asked. Lily looked at the window. Dolphin splashed a happy splash. "A dolphin!" said Lily.
Fold, press, fold. Nai Nai's fingers were quick, and Lily's were careful. A tail. A fin. A round smiling face. Nai Nai tucked a small warm light inside, and the dolphin lantern began to glow pink.
"Sweater on," said Nai Nai, "the evening is cool." Lily wiggled into her soft pink sweater. She held the dolphin lantern on its stick, and Dolphin swam round the pond, ready to go.
Out on the neighborhood path, the sky was turning deep blue. Dolphin swam along the little stream beside them. Everywhere there were lanterns, red and gold and orange, and so many families.
People talked and laughed. Big kids ran past. It was very loud. Lily held Nai Nai's sleeve tight and tucked her face against it. Her lantern drooped low, almost touching the stones.
Nai Nai did not hurry her. She just stood still and warm beside her. Then Dolphin swam close to the edge of the stream and nudged Lily's hand. Click, click, went Dolphin, soft and kind.
Lily peeked up. Slowly, she lifted the dolphin lantern high. She dipped it down and swooped it up, just like Dolphin swimming. The pink light bobbed through the dark, up and down, up and down.
A little boy pointed. "Look, a swimming fish!" "It's a dolphin," Lily whispered. More children came to see. Quietly, one by one, they lined up behind her with their own lanterns.
Lily walked slowly, and the children walked slowly too. Dolphin swam at the front, and the pink light swam in the air. Nai Nai held her other hand and squeezed it once.
Back home in the garden, it was quiet again. Dolphin slid into the round pond. And above them hung the moon, huge and golden and perfectly round, like the biggest mooncake in the world.
Lily sat on a pink cushion. She poured warm tea from the teapot, very carefully. A cup for Nai Nai. A cup for Dolphin at the pond's edge. A cup for herself. Then one more cup.
"Who is that one for?" asked Nai Nai. "Our far-away family," said Lily. Nai Nai's eyes went soft. She split a mooncake and gave Lily half. "The moon shines on them too," she said. "So it keeps them close."
Lily snuggled into her pink sweater and sipped her tea beside Dolphin. The dolphin lantern glowed on the grass. In the extra teacup, a tiny round moon was floating.
