The Keeper of Sleepy Hollow

Chapter 1: When everything goes to sleep

Every night, when the last light fades from the sky and the first star blinks itself awake, the Keeper of Sleepy Hollow begins her walk.

She is very small and very old and wears a coat the colour of warm shadows, and she carries a lantern that gives off a light so soft and golden it feels like the moment just before you close your eyes.

Her job is to tuck the world in. All of it. Every single part.

She starts with the rivers. She hums a low, slow hum, and one by one the rivers stop rushing and begin to murmur instead a soft, sleepy sound like water whispering to stones. The fish curl into the quiet bends where the water is still. The reeds stop swaying. The rivers breathe slowly in, and slowly out, and sleep.

Then she does the meadows. She walks through the long grass, trailing her fingers, and the daisies fold their petals closed, one by one, like little hands pressed together. The bees go home to their warm dark hives. The butterflies find their leaves and hold very still. The meadows let out a long, contented breath that smells of grass and clover and the end of a good day.

Then she does the mountains. This takes a little longer because mountains are very large and sometimes forgetful. She places her lantern on the highest rock and lets the warm light spread all the way down to the valleys, and slowly, slowly, the mountains stop being craggy and cold and become soft-edged and quiet and blue, the way they always look just before dark.

Then she does the stars. She does not tuck them in stars do not sleep, they are far too busy but she gives each one a small nod of acknowledgement, and they twinkle back, which is their way of saying good evening and we have it from here.

By this point in the evening, almost everything is settled. Almost everything is still.

Except, as always, for the small brown bear at the edge of the hollow, who is very much awake and has been awake for quite some time and has a great many questions.