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The farmhouse had become completely heated by the dryness of summer. It was to the point that even a thin bed sheet would be too much to sleep with, and from what Courage could see all of the blankets were kicked off the bed into a crumple on the floor. Even though Courage very rarely slept under the covers and the offending covers were on the floor he felt as hot as a sweating pig.
And he thought that was especially weird since he was a dog.
So Courage was rolling about in his spot on the mattress, a little bit of grumbling at this predicament. He stopped once he heard the farmer mutter in his sleep.
The odds of getting kicked out of the bedroom had probably risen for just a moment and would increase if Courage kept rolling around. But he really couldn’t help it; so he’d have to go cool off.
Before leaving the bedroom Courage checked the open window three times. As a precaution he set traps on the windowsill in case someone or something tried to climb into the house. The traps probably wouldn’t work so Courage was going in a circle in and out of the bedroom five times just to make sure. With all of his honesty it was just for Muriel’s benefit.
In his internal defense the farmer always came back. Just like if the house was ever completely destroyed it was always miraculously rebuilt. That was just how Nowhere worked.
Though it would’ve helped Courage immensely if Muriel and the farmer actually remembered the events that seemed to happen on a weekly basis and often made Courage feel like his heart and other organs were going to be coughed up in terror. Not like it would’ve decreased Courage’s paranoia.
The stairs creaked as he walked down, watching for anything to happen. Some creature with too many eyes could pop up from behind the television and start shooting its eyes at him. A deity could get annoyed by the farmer’s snoring and kidnap Muriel, holding her for ransom for some old artifact or a crown or something. A haunted and fleshy teacup that groaned could flood the house with lukewarm tea.
In this case Courage didn’t fall to the bottom of the stairs. The house was quiet. His danger level dropped from red to a reddish orange.
Courage carefully walked out to the porch, his ears vigilant for any screams of distress – mostly Muriel’s, the farmer would have to take care of himself.
When Courage looked up the moon wasn’t shrouded in red, nothing blipped against the night sky. The stars were bright, more visible than they would ever be in the big stinkin’ city. Or so Courage had heard, he was too wound up with anxiety to look up at the night sky when he was there.
It was marginally cooler out here. The barren dirt and the dark sky stretched on and on. If Courage didn’t know any better he’d assume that Muriel, the farmer and himself were the only living things left in the world.
Courage couldn’t fully pretend that was the case. Sometimes it wasn’t all bad sharing this world with others, even if it could be filled with anxiousness.
He reflected, that somehow the situation with Bunny and Kitty had all worked out and the pair happily left Nowhere together. A kind hunchback had played bells with Courage and saw his meeting with Courage and Muriel as proof that there were good people in the world. A beaver that felt inadequate followed his dream of playing smooth tunes. There were many others that had their hearts soften in the face of compassion.
And a starmaker that created those very stars up there, holding on to life long enough to see her children free. Her children floated off into their proper and safe place in the sky, and evidently were hard at work filling that sky with stars.
It was believed that the children were the last of the starmakers. But even though the unknown was absolutely terrifying it held promise. And perhaps they weren’t the only ones up there. Perhaps they weren’t alone.
Courage’s train of thought derailed into a five-way crash when the screen door opened. He screamed, jumped off the porch and landed in the dirt.
“Ah, Courage,” he heard Muriel say as she gathered him up into her arms. His frazzled nerves settled just a bit.
“I was wonderin’ where you went off to – it is quite cool out here, so let’s sit together.”
Courage had no complaints. It was only with Muriel’s presence that Courage’s danger level dropped to a healthy green. Muriel sat on the porch with Courage in her arms and both of them admired the night sky, clear and bright.