Natalia's Great Journey in the White Night

– Come on, Natalia! To the bed!

Oh nooooo! Natalia thought. “Not that!”

Night fell and Natalia, the girl of almost seven, felt her heart pounding. Like every night, restlessness and doubt made his heart black with pitch.

– I don’t like the dark. I don’t like the dark, I don’t like the dark, ”Natalia muttered, who claimed a large glass of white milk every night, slept on white sheets surrounded by plush white dolls with a presence light. And as the night wore on, Natalia, with her eyes wide open and her heart dark as pitch, spent a night … all white, to make war on the darkness.

And Natalia thought, “What happens at night while I sleep? What if one day everything stops? If my heart stops beating, if the earth decides to get under the sea and everything begins to sink?”

When Natalia closed her eyes, she felt, deep within herself, that movement of oscillation and vertigo.

Then he hurried to open them, thinking, “If I, Natalia, keep my eyes open, the Earth will not stop spinning.”

One night Natalia heard a murmur, a whisper, a rumor. It looked like an all-white wedding dress.

“Natalia,” called a very soft voice. – Natalia! Look at me.

But Natalia saw nothing… Nothing but the dark, the white of her plush, the light of presence.

– I’m here … It’s me, the Night!

Natalia’s eyes widened. An infinitely sweet laugh rang in his ears.

– I am the Night! I came to take a little trip with you. Let’s visit the night world together?

Natalia, both amazed and afraid, let the night wrap her in his warm arms and felt her body grow heavy. Her eyelids closed and she rose six thousand feet above the earth! It was a very strange impression, because as it lay in bed, it soared high above the great flying carpet at Night.

How beautiful and serene the earth was from above! It was bright and cheerful like the balls of a Christmas tree. In the black sky, Natalia came across a small sand merchant, throwing his magic grains into his full hands, shouting:

– Upa! One more to bed! And upa! Little Martim, to bed! Upa! Little Helena!

When she met him, Natalia watched him closely. The merchant looked at Natalia with his bright eyes, waving his small fist questioningly.

“No, thanks,” said the Night. – Tonight, we’re just visiting. Natalia will not sleep.

“All right,” said the little sand merchant, who went about his business. Upa! Upa!

And both plunged deeper into the darkness. Deep in the sky, a large yellow ball was knitting, yawning, a large night scarf. Beside her, the little stars bounced, laughing.

– A little silence! Muttered the moon. “It’s night on earth!” A little respect for those who are sleeping!

“This moon looks like my grandmother,” thought Natalia, who told herself that the night was full of noise and color!

He saw a plane, then a train, a shooting star, a small helicopter at night. A little Martian sunbathing, wiggling his long, rubbery toes. On an asteroid, a sage combed, sighing, his three-kilometer-long white beard, a ram watching a rose and smiling as some little blue men headed for the school.

– Do you see everything that goes on while you sleep? Life goes on, but it’s another life, ”Night told her.

Then they began to approach Earth, which now resembled a huge whispering ball that hung in the sky. She breathed softly in her sleep. Suddenly a million alarm clocks started ringing at once. Natalia started.

“Oh, it’s just the bakers who get up to make bread and chocolate cookies for the kids.”

And getting closer, they saw hundreds and hundreds of sleeping children, with a big smile on their faces. How peaceful and happy their expression was! …

“Their hearts keep beating, that’s why the sheets move.” In her body, blood continues to circulate and even the eyes move under the eyelids, but they are in the dream world. Nothing stops, everything goes on.

And the night looked Natalia straight in the eye.

“Do you know that I only sleep with one eye?” Life does not stop during sleep, everyone continues to breathe. By the way, ”murmured the Night,“ if you listen to your ears when you are in bed, you can hear the whisper of the Night. And even the murmur of the earth…

Returning from her trip, Natalia found herself in her bed, full of sleep. It was good to think of all those who rested, as well as those who worked at night, quietly, gently, so that the world could move forward…

Soon the night became so pleasant to Natalya that she dismissed her little presence light and her fluorescent sheets and all that makes the nights white.

– I want to sleep in the dark. In total darkness, ”he says with conviction.

Her mother looks at her with eyes of wonder, wondering what happened and why Natalia grew up so suddenly.

Natalia, for her part, wondered for a long time whether she had dreamed of this trip with the Night or if it had really existed. Until the day that question was no longer asked. Because what counted now was that she loved to sleep…