You've met someone, haven't you, his mother said. I can see it. Why do you not let me meet her? Is she not respectable? Do you not care at all what folks will think?

His smile was slightly maddening.

And that night when he slipped out of bed and went out to the garden, she followed him secretly.

There she saw a slender luminous form, moving with incredible slow grace to the sound of a small drum and tinkling bells, unseen. A shower of pale-blue and silver tiny stars followed in its wake, and suddenly it sprang upward like a startled bird, whirling and scattering more stars.

And then it drifted back to the ground, and she saw a pair of wings, seemingly made of lace and starlight, rising behind it.

And she saw her son sitting motionless, just watching. And she knew nothing would ever be the same again, including herself.