“They get a half hour lie in.”
“half an hour lion, Daddy?”
Daddy smiled.
“Yes, he was the half an hour lion.”
He came from a land afar, he was a lion for half an hour, but what was he the rest of the while? Such a good question that he often times asked it.
The service he provided was a valuable one, wee children who needed their rest, but in search of fun often rose more than early. The lion for half an hour, not a minute more or less, would visit and offer up his luxurious mane. For them to snuggle this shaggily soporific sleeping aide would render then restful, freeing up their limbs for later adventures and soothing their parents frayed nerves, for they too got further slumber.
But for the poor lion it was somewhat trickier, for when his half hour of lioning was up he would drift to the ether, neither existing or not. A dreamspace of sorts, but how lonely was the lion, on a scale of blue to glum, by the rule of thumb you’d have to say gloomy.
This was a time beyond Aardvarks and Fear was vanquished, but Love still oversaw all life and especially the edges. She watched the kindly lion perform his selfless service, helping and caring, and she smiled, a sliver of an idea forming. Love skipped to the next realm, and caught a snippet of a conversation.
“This weekend I’m going to get a veritable lie-in.”
“A ferret-able lie in?”
She grinned, her amber happiness the equal of anything. A ferret-able lie-in indeed. She thought about what it should look like for no more than a moment and then in her arms a furry ferret appeared. The perfect friend for lion she was sure.
She moved back to the almost dreamscape and tucked ferret under the slumbering lion’s paw.
She whispered to lion.
“Lion my friend, you are a lion and so much more, a gift from Love is under your paw, awake dear friend and meet your companion. From now and ever forth children everywhere will have a ferret-able Lion to give them sweet dreams.”
Lion awoke and he saw Ferret and Ferret saw Lion, and what friends they became, doing good deeds for all and forever.
Copyright John de Gruyther 2018
The World Outside the Window 