cricket ceague

First prize 10 and under

Penelope Berkeley, age 9 Mars Hill, NC

A Little Bit of Moonlight

Night had fallen, and Luna awoke from where she had been sleeping in a cornfield. She moved steadily through the stalks with barely a sound, keeping her eyes on the glittering glass rooftop of the greenhouse in the distance. When a centipede crawled up her leg, she shook it off and kept going.

When she reached the greenhouse, Luna looked around her. The moon glowed full and orange in the frosty autumn sky. The cornstalks clacked and rustled in the soft night breeze. Luna took a deep breath and pushed through the doors.

Inside the greenhouse a Venus flytrap snapped around a beetle. Luna crept inside. She found a small pot labeled “blue moon vanilla.” Plucking a pod form the plant, she darted back outside.

Luna made her way through the stalks. She walked across the clearing where she had slept and up to a cauldron of water. Luna crushed the pod with her fist and sprinkled it onto the glassy surface. Then she reached into the pocket of her filthy brown dress and pulled out a sack of gray powder. She dumped it in