Behind the pillowcases

The linen cupboard smelled of soap and wood. Mila was looking for another pillowcase. Hers had a button that ended up beneath her ear no matter which way she turned the pillow.

It was her first night at Grandma’s new house. She liked her room, with its yellow rug and a windowsill wide enough to sit on. But the radiator made a ticking sound that didn’t happen at home. And in the dark, Grandma’s coat looked unpleasantly like a person hanging on the bedroom door.

Behind the pillowcases lay a little bundle tied with a blue ribbon. Light was seeping out between its folds.

Mila held it to her ear. No buzzing. She carefully pulled the bow undone.

The bundle opened into a cloth the size of a tea towel. At first it looked grey. Then she lifted it, and a pale gleam washed over her fingers. She could see every line in her palms, even the little crescent where she had pressed a pencil that afternoon.

A label hung from the hem, written in Grandma’s small, sloping handwriting:

Borrowed moonlight. Keep whole. Unfold outside before morning, shiny side towards the sky.

Mila read it three times. She turned the cloth over. Its back was as ordinary as a dishcloth.

Grandma appeared in the doorway, carrying one shoe.

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘There it is.’

‘Is this real?’

‘Hold it beside the window.’

The moon hung above the chimneys. The threads shifted very slightly towards it, like grass stirring as a bicycle passes.

Grandma sat on the bed. ‘My mother could weave light. Not much. Just enough to thread a needle when the lamp had broken. This was hers. I put it on the balcony to borrow some light this evening, then left it here while I fetched a clean pillowcase.’

‘Can I keep it tonight?’ Mila glanced at the coat.

‘Until bedtime. Then we give the light back. If we keep it past sunrise, the cloth will never shine again.’

Mila stroked the hem. ‘Could we cut off a little piece?’

‘A cut piece goes dark straight away. The weave has to stay whole.’

Grandma put her shoe on. They were going to the puppet show at the community hall. Mila folded the cloth and slipped it into her coat pocket with the label and the blue ribbon.