Every week, Sue Vincent sets a #writephoto challenge, using one of her lovely evocative photographs as a prompt. To participate, you have until Wednesday each week to write your post, with a new prompt posted on Thursday. This week, Sue shared an image of the full moon – this is my response:
‘All night long make tropic love, the next day sit in hot sun and cool off.’
She smiled, leaning back in her sun lounger, sipping rum and coca-cola, just like the song crackling from the old radio. Putting her drink down she stretched, feeling a slight twinge across her hipbones, as though they were slightly bruised. She frowned, a flash of dream from the night before sliding through her mind.
A dream of slipping out of the house into a silvery night, the moon a pale lantern leading her up through the trees behind her house, to where the land was smooth and green, raised like a breast towards the sky. Ridges carved into the earth formed a pathway strewn with starlight, and she danced along it, the silk and cotton of her nightgown soft against her bare legs, her hair long down her back as she twirled, arms lifted to the skies.
When she reached the top she saw others there, faces she recognised from the village, their arms raised as though to catch the silver light, eyes wild with the dance. And others still that she didn’t know, with pointed fox faces and strange gleaming eyes, their lithe bodies twisting as they moved among the dancers. Under the midsummer moon they had danced, woven silver and shadows, coming together to lie on soft grass under whirling stars until she had felt herself lifted, golden, becoming part of something larger and wilder…
And then she had woken, alone in her bed, the moon a soft orb glimpsed through her open window, fading in the light of dawn. She had stared a while, before sleep claimed her once more, not waking until sun streamed bright through the glass, warming her from head to toe.
It was a strange dream, she mused, taking another sip of her drink. She ran a hand through her hair and something caught in her fingers. A blade of grass, green as summer leaves, smooth as silk, wild as a dance.
As a dream.
Helen Glynn Jones 
What a wonderful, evocative, sensual response to Sue’s theme and beautiful photo. Love the images you created Helen.
Thanks so much, Miriam, really glad you enjoyed it 🙂 There’s something about a full moon… 😉
Oh yes, you’re right Helen. And I think we’re due for one tonight…
Yes, I can feel the wildness in the air… Hope we both sleep well ;-D
Me too!
Very cool story.
Thanks, Craig 🙂 I enjoy these quick prompts.
She spent the night with the Fair Ones… she was lucky they allowed her home! 😁 Beautiful, beautiful writing, so dreamy and magical, it made me want to be there.
Thanks so much, Ali – that means a lot 🙂 The moon is almost full tonight, and it always makes me feel a bit wild. I guess Sue’s photo brought that out too.
Haha! It’s a supermoon tomorrow, too.
Ooh, better stay away from fairy mounds!
I’d love to go inside one! But I would like to come out again, and not after 300 years…
Yes, I feel just the same way 🙂
😁
Terrific stuff, Helen. You really get the atmosphere when reading this. I’ve read it twice and, each time, the hairs on my arms stand up. For me, that’s the sign of reading a bit of brilliance.
Well done.
Ooh, thank you, Hugh. That’s a lovely compliment! I’m so pleased you enjoyed it 🙂
Very moving, well written, and metaphorically intertwined…
Nice juxtaposition between dream and vigil…. Was it (just) a dream?… Best wishes! Aquileana 🙂
Thanks so much, Aquileana 🙂 Was it just a dream? I’ll never tell… ;-D xx
Beautifully and evocatively told, Helen. On the night you posted this, we watched a primal dance of foxes and flames beneath a full moon…
Thanks so much, Sue. And that’s so interesting, quite the coincidence…
It is… and it was an incredible night 🙂
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Evocative and beautiful. II loved the ending where she woke from her dream, but was it?
Thanks so much, Michelle, really glad you enjoyed it 🙂 As to whether it was a dream… 😉
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