The Moon Man Attempts to Kidnap the Ghost Sisters
Here is an illustration I finished recently.
The three ghost sisters have lived in the cemetery for hundreds of years. When they were alive, they lived in a small house in the wilderness with their mother and father. The ghost children were part of a family of pioneers who left an ordinary life in search of adventure. But the adventure led to disaster one day when a candle set the curtains of their log house aflame. The three ghost children died in the fire before they had a chance to grow up. It happened in the early morning. Their mother and father had been outside feeding the goats when the fire started. Their parents tried to save their children, but it was too late.
There heart broken parents were going to bury them in the woods, but they were afraid their children's spirits would feel alone amongst the mossy woods with only animal bones to keep them company. They paid the preacher in the nearest town to take the girl's charred bones and bury them in the the town's cemetery.
After their burial, there mother ran away with another man. She could no longer remain with her husband. The man she fell in love with when she was a young woman had passed on his eyes to their three daughters. Every time she looked at him, she thought of her daughters. With her new man, she had four more children who she tried to love like her first three. But it was hard, because every night she dreamed of her three daughters. In her dreams, she was living the life she was meant to have before the fire destroyed it all. When she woke up to her real life of three dead children and four live ones, she couldn't help to wish be back in the dream where her live children had never been born. Her live children would look at her with unfamiliar eyes and they knew something was missing. But there mother never told them what. The four live children never knew they had any siblings besides each other.
The ghost children's father joined a crew of a ship. He had always thought his life was in the woods, but it turns out he was meant for the sea. While at sea, he made few friends. He spent his days working the ship and his nights reading books about the afterlife or carving figures out of pieces of driftwood. He told himself he would someday go back to his daughter's graves to bring them flowers and driftwood figurines of their favorite animals. A squirrel for Anna, a sparrow for Mary and a turtle for Clara Jane. But he never made it back to the cemetery where his daughters bones rested. On a stormy day one winter, the ship he was on was crushed by a wave. He escaped the sinking ship by clinging onto a splintered piece of wood. He was swept to an abandoned island where he lived the rest of his life with a few of the other survivors of the sinking ship. They built homes out of palm leaf prongs and driftwood. They ate kelp salad, fried fish and fruit. The ghost children's father never found out if he would have ever gained the courage to visit his children's grave. But he would have been comforted to know that they were happy ghost children.
The ghost children spent all their days sleeping underneath the soft earth and all their nights playing in the cemetery. They danced around the graves, they sang to the sky and they frolicked in the weedy undergrowth. They never grew older. They were always happy-go-lucky children. They never had anything to worry about. That is until the moon man spotted the children. The longer they were ghosts, the more they glowed with their own delight. From way up in the sky, the moon man coveted their light. He wanted their light so he could create more stars to decorate his glittering empire with. So he swooped down from the sky in an attempt to whisk the ghost girls away from their graves and into the sky. The ghost children did not want to go with the moon man. They wanted to be more then sparkles in the sky. The moon man was strong and determined and the ghost children were frightened.
But somewhere, far off on and island, the ghost of their father would rattle to life. And somewhere else, buried next to the bones of her grown children, the ghost of their mother awoke. Their children's fear would waken the long dead parents and summon them to the old cemetery. They could not save their children the first time they were in danger, but they would save their children this time.
The three ghost sisters have lived in the cemetery for hundreds of years. When they were alive, they lived in a small house in the wilderness with their mother and father. The ghost children were part of a family of pioneers who left an ordinary life in search of adventure. But the adventure led to disaster one day when a candle set the curtains of their log house aflame. The three ghost children died in the fire before they had a chance to grow up. It happened in the early morning. Their mother and father had been outside feeding the goats when the fire started. Their parents tried to save their children, but it was too late.
There heart broken parents were going to bury them in the woods, but they were afraid their children's spirits would feel alone amongst the mossy woods with only animal bones to keep them company. They paid the preacher in the nearest town to take the girl's charred bones and bury them in the the town's cemetery.
After their burial, there mother ran away with another man. She could no longer remain with her husband. The man she fell in love with when she was a young woman had passed on his eyes to their three daughters. Every time she looked at him, she thought of her daughters. With her new man, she had four more children who she tried to love like her first three. But it was hard, because every night she dreamed of her three daughters. In her dreams, she was living the life she was meant to have before the fire destroyed it all. When she woke up to her real life of three dead children and four live ones, she couldn't help to wish be back in the dream where her live children had never been born. Her live children would look at her with unfamiliar eyes and they knew something was missing. But there mother never told them what. The four live children never knew they had any siblings besides each other.
The ghost children's father joined a crew of a ship. He had always thought his life was in the woods, but it turns out he was meant for the sea. While at sea, he made few friends. He spent his days working the ship and his nights reading books about the afterlife or carving figures out of pieces of driftwood. He told himself he would someday go back to his daughter's graves to bring them flowers and driftwood figurines of their favorite animals. A squirrel for Anna, a sparrow for Mary and a turtle for Clara Jane. But he never made it back to the cemetery where his daughters bones rested. On a stormy day one winter, the ship he was on was crushed by a wave. He escaped the sinking ship by clinging onto a splintered piece of wood. He was swept to an abandoned island where he lived the rest of his life with a few of the other survivors of the sinking ship. They built homes out of palm leaf prongs and driftwood. They ate kelp salad, fried fish and fruit. The ghost children's father never found out if he would have ever gained the courage to visit his children's grave. But he would have been comforted to know that they were happy ghost children.
The ghost children spent all their days sleeping underneath the soft earth and all their nights playing in the cemetery. They danced around the graves, they sang to the sky and they frolicked in the weedy undergrowth. They never grew older. They were always happy-go-lucky children. They never had anything to worry about. That is until the moon man spotted the children. The longer they were ghosts, the more they glowed with their own delight. From way up in the sky, the moon man coveted their light. He wanted their light so he could create more stars to decorate his glittering empire with. So he swooped down from the sky in an attempt to whisk the ghost girls away from their graves and into the sky. The ghost children did not want to go with the moon man. They wanted to be more then sparkles in the sky. The moon man was strong and determined and the ghost children were frightened.
But somewhere, far off on and island, the ghost of their father would rattle to life. And somewhere else, buried next to the bones of her grown children, the ghost of their mother awoke. Their children's fear would waken the long dead parents and summon them to the old cemetery. They could not save their children the first time they were in danger, but they would save their children this time.