What happens in the light of the full moon?

It was in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, where Maudy and Tinke found out what they were supposed to be doing in life. It didn’t take much more than their green, lush garden in the middle of the city, their typical Ugandan compound wall – with razor wire on top, the blue, bright light of a full moon and an unidentified, yet simple subject. The story may be peculiar and out of the ordinary, but it happened, on a night in Kampala, lit by moonlight.

It was midnight, and Maudy was fast asleep: lightly snoring, dripping drool on her pillow, with her blonde curls surrounding her head like rays of sunshine. Her sleep got interrupted by a face peeking through the doorway. “Maudy! Maudy! Wake up! I think there is someone trying to climb over the wall!” Tinke whispered in a way that sounded like yelling at the same time, somewhat like a seventy-something-year old lady who smoked one too many cigarettes in her life. Maudy tore herself from her sleep moaning, but at the same time her heart pounded against her ribcage. Burglaries happened in Kampala. Was it finally their turn? Was it a thief on their wall?

Maudy and Tinke hid behind the curtain of their backdoor, peeking anxiously into the moonlit backyard. The blue light was bright, creating dancing shadows from the palm leaves and guava trees in the wind. There it was: on top of their wall. A man, revealing nothing more than black shapes. “Shit, what do we do?” Maudy whispered. “I think he’s struggling. He has been there on top of the wall ever since I saw him”, Tinke replied. They squeezed their eyes, looking for a face or a movement that could tell something about what this man was up to. “Maybe he is stuck on the razor wire?” Maudy tried. “What, you mean like with his pants?” It did look like the man was somehow pinned and in pain. You could see the shivers rolling over his body from where the two women were hiding. “The shape of his head seems weird. Does it seem weird to you?” Tinke whispered. Suddenly the man turned his weirdly-shaped head and looked right at them. Or so it seemed. Then the man lifted his arm and waved at them. Maudy and Tinke gasped for breath. Their heart jumped all the way up their throat. Did the man know they were there, hiding behind the curtains, sneaking a peak?

“Are you sure this is a good idea?!” Maudy asked while following Tinke from the kitchen – where she just grabbed a big frying pan – into the backyard. “Yes, we need to get closer and scare him off”. Tinke made a smooth forward roll over the grass and ended up just behind a bush, from where she could have a clearer view on the man pinned on their razor wire. Maudy took a deep breath, tightened her satin robe and ran to the bush where TInke was hiding. They held their breath while gazing at the man. Except it was not a man. It was something else, something they could not quite put their finger on. They couldn’t tell whether the creature was aware of their presence, until it lifted its head and a sharp and loud howl escaped it’s throat. The wind blowed Maudy’s curls in her face. She looked up to the sky as she wiped them away. “It’s full moon…” she whispered. “Do you think that… It could be…” “A werewolf?” Tinke’s grip on the frying pan tightened. “Not sure. We have to get closer”.

The women tiptoed over the grass, approaching the wall with the werewolf – or whatever it was – step by step. The wind picked up, and started playing with the exotic trees and plants around them. The moonlight shined it’s blue light and highlighted the contrast of the dancing shadows over the lawn and the compound walls. Suddenly the werewolf started moving. Moreover: it started dancing, on top of that compound wall, shaking it’s legs, rolling it’s head and waving it’s arms. The wind made a howling sound, or was it a high pitched screech of a voice? Maudy and Tinke froze and did not dare to take another step or move a muscle. “It’s not a werewolf,” Maudy told Tinke with a trembling voice. “There are no werewolves in Uganda. But you know what does exist here?” Tinke nodded. “Juju. It’s black magic. A night dancer cursing the house.” “I never thought that shit was real,” Maudy added, breathless. The night dancer jumped up and down the wall and shook her hips. The shadows around them started to dance along with her and closed in on Maudy and Tinke, who stood there with shaking knees, unable to move as if under a spell. Then, out of the blue, the night dancer jumped graciously off the wall, out of the dark shadows and into the light of the full moon. In a flash Maudy and Tinke saw a row of shiny, blinking teeth. But they didn’t have time to get a proper look, as their legs finally started moving again. They screamed as loud as their voices could handle, and ran as fast as their legs could carry them. Once they reached their bedrooms, they locked the doors, hid under their blankets, closed their eyes and hoped for the best.

It was that moment, on a sunny morning, when Maudy and Tinke realised that there had not been any series of magical, unusual or adventurous events that night. It had merely been the blue light of the full moon creating shadows and playing with their minds. It had been the full moon that had turned them into lunatics, brought fantasies to life and created new stories. Stories about a simple, unidentified object. And Maudy and Tinke lived happily ever after, forever creating in the bright light of the full moon.