The Adventures Of The Midnight Hours

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. It’s my favourite time of the day.

It really is the best time of the day and most people don’t even know it happens every night, as midnight strikes. Oh, what they are missing out on!

It’s so much my favourite time of the day, that I have a standard alarm set on my phone to wake me every night at fifteen minutes to midnight. When that alarm goes off I dive out of bed and turn my eyes to the sky.

It’s my secret and I don’t tell too many people. Why should I? They don’t even know they are missing out so I won’t spoil their boring ants-like existence that they lead.

Most people I know think I’m the weird one. The one who has a standing bed time of 3 o’clock in the afternoon — they don’t realise that’s so I can be awake before midnight and that I get to live the best hours of my life, in those hours after midnight.

They have so many questions about my life and the ‘crazy’ hours I keep — in their mind it’s all crazy — but I just laugh at their questions and don’t bother responding. I like being thought of as crazy.

Everything about my life is normal until that clock strikes midnight and then my real life comes into play.

Of all my friends and acquaintances, only two know my secret and funnily enough they don’t believe me. How funny is that? It’s why I opened up to them and told them the truth and they just don’t believe a word I say. They are the perfect confidante and they believe I’m the best storyteller. In fact, they keep telling me I should write a magical realism book.

If only they knew.

So I took them up on their suggestion and here is the first chapter of my book.

Chapter One

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky.

I anticipate my nightly adventure that starts at midnight with the majestically beautiful sky as my inspiration. My alarm sounds at 11:45 pm and I dive out of bed fully dressed, ready for the adventure that I’ll be experiencing that night. Every night is a different adventure. Every night is a mystery unfolding and I keep an open mind to everything that I witness.

I have fifteen minutes after my alarm wakes me. Fifteen minutes to drive to the perfect spot. Every night a different spot and I let destiny decide.

I jump in the car, back out of the driveway and just drive for fifteen minutes. I don’t think about where I’m going, I don’t make any conscious decisions on which way and when, I just let my reflexes turn the wheel at any given time and at exactly midnight I park the car and climb out the door.

I wait as the blushing sky shows me the magnificent purple clouds and I wait for whatever comes next.

Tonight finds me on the edge of a cornfield and as the clouds come out to play, the corn turns a fluorescent pink, much to my delight.

I begin to hear music booming from the sky. This is different as I’d not attended a sky concert before. Oh, this is going to be fun.

The music picks up speed and my feet begin to tap a beat of their own. My hips start to wiggle in time and to my utter delight I see the corn rows join leaves and begin waltzing in time to the beat. I jiggle and stamp my feet as I watch each corn pair whirl and swirl, dip and bend as they take up the melody of the song.

I dance along behind, never taking my eyes from the sky, waiting as I’m sure there’s more to delight.

I begin to see a tiny glow behind the clouds and soon realise the ruby moon is flying high, coming to join the party. As she rises from behind the clouds she begins to spin as she completes a solo waltz across the sky.

When she twirls, the dark side of the moon reflects the pink of the corn stalks, the purple of the clouds, the rosy blush colour of the sky and the ruby hue of the moonlight and it reflects these colours across the sky for as far as the eye can see.

It’s like our very own fireworks display.

Tonight’s adventure is a worldwide disco. The clouds are flashing to the music, the moon reflects the colours like a mirror ball and the music — the glorious music.

The corn and I have danced a long way from my car and their field, when we begin to notice the kangaroos have paired up and bound along through the dancing rows of corn. Wow they can backflip and leap halfway to the moon.

The trees surrounding us begin to sway and the koalas are now awake, joining in the show. They are part of the band as they tap there sticks against the tree branches, joining the official percussion musical instruments booming from the sky.

Next the ants and other tiny insects rise from the earth and join together to move and sway to the music. Thousands of tiny little feet stampeding across the earth.

Birds begin to swoop from above, their plume freshly preened to delight. They swoop under corn stalks, circle the kangaroo couples, flash through the trees and sing to their hearts content.

The world has become one large musical live theatre production and any who are awake have come to join the troupe, to be on an adventure of a lifetime.

As the night hours fall, and six o’clock in the morning descends upon the sleeping earth; the moon heads to bed, the clouds release their colours in a purple shower of rain and the sky lightens with the rising of the sun. The corn stalks return to their field, the animals return to the importance of survival because the disco hours have come to an end.

Me, I head back to my car, my heart filled with blessings, and I head to my day job, already excited for my alarm to wake me at fifteen minutes before midnight tonight.

Tonight I’ll give you chapter two of my magical realism story. Too bad you’re not going to believe it’s not really a story but the actual honest-to-goodness truth.

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