Week 11, Storytelling: The Man in the Moon

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

Johnny immediately awoke from his deep summer sleep and thought, “did I hear someone knocking or was I just dreaming?”

Without thinking he twice, he closed his eyes and fell back asleep.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

He heard the mysterious noise again! This time Johnny was certain he was not dreaming.

Slowly and suspiciously, Johnny turned in his bed and opened his eyes.

“AHHHHHHH!” Johnny screamed.

There was a tall, lanky man standing on the tree-branch outside of his window.

“Don’t just lay there!” said the shadowy man. “It’s freezing out here.”

Carefully, Johnny got up from his bed and opened his bedroom window. The man came tumbling in and landed straight on top of Mr. Whiskers (Johnny’s pet cat).

“Who are you?” asked the little boy.

“Don’t you recognize me?” asked the man. “I am Norbert, the man on the moon of course!”

“What are you doing here?” asked Johnny.

“I am on my way to Norwich,” said Norbert. “Norwich is the moon in the Whirlpool Galaxy. My lovely wife resides there and I haven’t seen her in light years!”

Lost and confused, the little boy simply stared at the stranger without blinking.

“Well we can’t just stay here! You have to help me find Norwich,” begged Norbert.

Immediately, Johnny got out his map of the solar system he had made in class earlier that week.

“I am sorry to upset you, but I do not see the Whirlpool Galaxy on my map sir,” said the boy.

“Let me see that silly thing!” said Norbert.

The man took the map flipped it upside down and shouted, “It is right here!”

Johnny looked to where his finger was pointing and noticed that the map looked completely different now. All of the colors were sparkling, shooting stars were flying across the page, there were eight new planets that he had never seen before and there were two moons right in the middle of the map!

“Which moon is it?” asked Johnny.

“See the one on the left with the lovely craters shaped as a woman? That’s Norwich!” said the man.

“Then why is there a second one?” Asked the boy.

“That is my other home!” said Norbert. “That is where I need to go. Will you please show me how to get there?”

Immediately, the boy pulled out his campus and directed towards the two moons on Whirlpool Galaxy. He had studied directions in his class last week, so he was excited to test out his new skills.

“Okay, the direction says that you need to go south!” Said Johnny as he pointed left outside of his window.

“Thank you so much!” Screamed Norbert.

Before the man left, Johnny packed him a bag for his journey.

“I am sorry I can’t go with you.” Said Johnny. “I have my own family here that needs me.”

“It’s okay,” said Norbert. “You have helped me more than you will ever know!”

Johnny handed Norbert a backpack that had the solar system map, his campus and a few snacks in case he got hungry on his journey.

Norbert pulled one of the snacks and asked, “What is this?”

“That is cold pease-porridge,” explained Johnny.

Norbert took a huge bite and yelped “OUCH!” He then turned, opened the window and said “Goodbye earthling! Your helpfulness will be rewarded one day.”

Johnny crawled back in bed, closed his eyes and fell back asleep.

The Man in the Moon

Author’s Note: My original story came from The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang. The story I based mine off of was “The Man in the Moon.” The original nursery rhyme goes:

“THE man in the moon,

Came tumbling down,

And ask'd his way to Norwich;

He went by the south,

And burnt his mouth

With supping cold pease-porridge."

For my story this week, I wanted to make the man in the moon come alive. I wanted my readers to take a step back into their childhood days and relive this wonderful bedtime story. Throughout my story, I incorporated ideas from the original source. I was interested to see if the readers could pick up on the classic nursery rhyme that I based my story off of. In the end, I wanted the main character to fall back asleep. I wanted to do this to allow my readers to decide if it was all a dream or reality. Overall, I had so much fun with this type of story and loved being able to relive my childhood imagination.

Bibliography: My original story came from the Nursery Rhyme The Man in the Moon. I found this classic story in The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang in 1897.