Rita stared for several seconds at Cressida’s face. “Those are such wonderful glasses,” she said. “You almost look like one of us!”
“Thank you,” Cressida said. “They help me see in the dark.”
“You can’t see in the dark?” Renee and Roland said at once.
“I can’t even imagine what that would be like,” Rita said.
“Is it strange to need light to see?” Ringo asked.
“It’s not strange to me,” Cressida said, shrugging and smiling.
The raccoons nodded, fascinated.
Then Ringo said, “We were just practicing some new music we’ve been writing together. We’re hoping Moon will let us play it at the ball. Would you like to hear it?”
“Absolutely!” Cressida said. “But first, will you tell me the names of your instruments?”
Ringo grinned. “This one,” he said, nodding to an instrument that looked like a harp with four flutes poking out from the bottom and a drum on top, “is a flarpophone.” He pointed to Renee’s instrument, which looked like a large banjo with four blue keyboards wrapped around its body. “This is a quadruple-duple-banjinano.” He laid a paw on Roland’s instrument, which looked like five trumpets welded to the top of an accordion. “This is a trumpledump-ledordion.” He pointed to Rita’s instrument, which looked like eight long, thin, curly saxophones arranged in a circle. It reminded Cressida of an octopus. “And we just built this one today,” Ringo said. “We’re calling it an octogoloctohorn.”
“Amazing!” Cressida said. “If you’d like to play your new music now, I’d love to hear it.”
“Me too,” Moon said.
Ringo, Rita, Roland, and Renee smiled and nodded at each other. Ringo tapped the side of his flarpophone as he counted, “One and a two and a one, two, three, four.” The raccoons began to play, blowing into pipes and mouthpieces, strumming strings, crawling with their fingers up and down keyboards, and thumping on drums with their tails. The music sounded like a combination of the jazz her father listened to, the rock and roll her mother liked, and the show tunes her friends Daphne, Eleanor, and Gillian loved. The more she listened, the more she couldn’t keep her toes from tapping. Soon her body was swaying, her feet were stepping, and her arms were waving.
She glanced over at Moon, who was swaying with the beat and furrowing her brow. “I really want to dance,” she whispered, “but to be honest, I’m not sure how.”
“Try doing this,” Cressida said, stepping back and forth and waving her arms.
Moon took a step and then stopped. Her face looked uncertain.
“You can do it,” Cressida whispered gently, twirling and kicking to the beat.
Moon slowly took another step and tried to swish her tail. And then she froze. “Maybe Breeze and Firefly are right and we should stick with the traditional unicorn music,” Moon said, her face falling. “I want to dance to the new music. I really do. But I feel so worried about looking silly that I can’t. Though I sure would hate to disappoint the raccoons by telling them not to play their new songs.”
Cressida paused and thought about how to help her friend. She decided that the raccoons’ new music wasn’t the kind of music that you danced to by learning certain steps and sequences of dance moves, the way she did in her ballet class. Instead, it was the kind of music you danced to by making up your own ways of moving. “I don’t think there’s a right way or a wrong way to dance to this music,” Cressida said. “Try closing your eyes and letting your body move in whatever way it wants to.”
“But what if I look ridiculous?” Moon asked.
“Then we’ll look ridiculous together,” Cressida said, winking at Moon.
Moon smiled, even though she still looked nervous. She closed her eyes. For a few seconds she simply stepped back and forth. But soon, keeping her eyes tightly shut, she began to twirl, rear up, click her hooves together, and jump. For a moment, Cressida watched her friend. And then she closed her eyes too and began to spin and jump with the music. After a while, Cressida opened her eyes to discover Moon’s eyes were open, too. The two looked at each other and began to dance together: twirling at the same time, nodding their heads to the beat, skipping and prancing around the inside of the hollow tree.
When the raccoons stopped playing their music, Moon and Cressida, both out of breath, burst out laughing.
“That was the most fun I’ve ever had dancing!” Moon said.
“Me too,” Cressida said.
“Thank you!” the raccoons said, smiling proudly. Then all four stood up and took a bow.
Ringo cleared his throat. “Princess Moon, there is something we wanted to ask,” he began. “Have you decided whether we can play our new music at the ball?”
“I’m still thinking about it,” Moon said. “Breeze and Firefly really want us to stick to the traditional unicorn songs because they’re worried they won’t know how to dance to the new music.” Moon smiled at Cressida. “But it’s pretty clear there are all kinds of ways to dance to it.”
Ringo, Rita, Roland, and Renee exchanged hopeful glances.
“I just need a little more time to make a decision,” Moon said.
Ringo nodded. “Would you like us to play another new song?” he asked. “We could play a really fast one that’s even better for dancing.”
“Oh, thank you so much for offering,” Moon said. “I’d love to keep dancing, but I think Cressida and I had better go finish decorating the ballroom. There are more balloons and more strings of glow-in-the-dark rainbows I want to put up. And Breeze and Firefly are going to meet us there soon to help out.”
Cressida nodded. She wanted to stay and dance in the hollow tree for at least another hour or two, but she also felt excited to see the ballroom. “Thank you so very much for introducing me to your instruments and playing your new music for me,” she said.
“Our pleasure!” Ringo, Roland, Rita, and Renee all said
