Drawing the Moon

This short dark fantasy story originally appeared in the anthology Bruce Coville's Book of Nightmares, published by Scholastic Inc.

"Andrew knew that the moon had stolen his parents away.

"He tried to explain to Elizabeth once, after the funeral, but she didn’t understand. Her face turned horribly pale, and she whispered, “They’re dead, Andrew. Don’t you know that?” And then, just in case he didn’t, she drew him a picture. She used her red pencils, and some of Andrew’s crayons, besides. She used rusty-red for the brick buildings, brownish-red for the mugger’s jacket, rosy-red for Mom’s torn sweater on the sidewalk. And bright red for Dad, where the knife had gone through his chest.

"Andrew tore the drawing up—not because looking at it sent icy shivers up his spine, though it did—but because she’d gotten the drawing all wrong. She’d left out the moon, large and round in the night sky, and that was the most important part."