The next evening the garden looked different.
The moon was as big as a plate, and so bright that even the shadows showed. The grass was silver. The geraniums had opened.
Everyone was there.
The crickets on the fence. The frog out of the pond. The hedgehog under the tree. The birds on the branch, quiet, because birds do not sing at night.
And Tüsi was there too, beside the big stone, with Csiga.
“Tonight everyone sings,” said Csiga. “Just listen.”
The crickets began. Chirp-chirp. Chirp-chirp.
Then the frog. Croak. Croak.
Then the wind in the leaves. Shhh. Shhh.
It was lovely. It was big. Everyone was in it.
Tüsi rubbed his wings together. He said nothing.
He tried once more. Nothing.
“It won’t come,” he said quietly.
“Try the stone,” said Csiga.
Tüsi lifted his leg and tapped the stone.
Tock.
Nobody heard it. Everything else was too loud.
Tüsi tapped again. Tock. Then faster. Tock-tock. Tock-tock.
And then the frog stopped.
“Wait,” said the frog. “What is that sound?”
The crickets stopped too.
It went quiet. So quiet that even the grass was listening.
Tock. Tock. Tock-tock.
“That’s me,” said Tüsi, very quietly.
“That’s good,” said the frog. “That’s the beat.”
“What’s a beat?” asked Tüsi.
“The thing everyone can sing to,” said the frog.
And then they started again.
Tüsi knocked: tock, tock, tock-tock. The crickets chirped over him. The frog croaked. The wind blew along with them. The hedgehog rustled the leaves.
Everyone was listening to the small sound.
The garden kept quiet, and waited, though not because there was no sound. Because every sound had found its place.
The moon rose above them in the sky.
“I’d never have thought it,” said Tüsi, “that a tock counts too.”
“Every sound counts,” said Csiga. “You only have to find where it goes.”
The concert went on for a long time. Then it faded, bit by bit: first the birds, then the frog, then the crickets.
Tüsi knocked once, last of all.
Tock.
Only because it was good to hear.
The moon moved on across the sky. The grass grew cool again. The geraniums closed their petals.
Tüsi crawled in beside the stone.
“I’ll come again tomorrow,” said Csiga.
“I’ll be here tomorrow too,” said Tüsi.
And the two of them fell asleep, side by side, in the moonlight.
