Magic Beyond The Window
By Klutz


	Don’t expect too much of me this week, because I’m mourning.  One of my dogs 
died last night (27th) of cancer.  My Uncle has cancer, my friends parents and relatives 
have cancer… Everyone always seems to think of the people, but animals can get it too.  
Ruffy (Mr. Stinky) still had a good two years left in his life, but he died in his sleep with 
no one to say good-bye to him.  Please don’t mention this to me in the future.

	Darien wandered aimlessly through the art gallery, stopping to look at some 
random paintings that caught his eye.  He stopped in front of a new painting to this 
exhibit.  It was done in oils and was a beautiful scene of a grand ball in some long 
forgotten kingdom.  The couple that this painting focused on caught him completely.  A 
girl with long blonde hair done up in meatballs with a streamer of hair arcing out of each 
and large, luminous blue eyes.  Her partner was a man who looked startlingly like 
himself.  Short wavy black hair, falling in his eyes slightly (which were another 
marvelous shade of blue) tan skin, and strong features, whereas the girl was more 
delicate, but strong.  
	“Do you like this one?” The manager of the exhibit asked.  He was curious as to 
what this young man thought of their newest painting.  He’d been standing there, 
mesmerized for a good ten minutes. 
	“It’s beautiful… It seems so familiar and haunting, yet happy.  Like the calm 
before the storm.” Darien answered dazedly. 
	“Yes, she’s the latest sensation around… Lives with Lonnie Loni.  They seem to 
paint similar scenes.” The man continued. “I hope you enjoy the exhibit.” He finished, 
walking away.
	“Yes…” Darien, said softly.  “I think I will…” 
	Before leaving, he bought a few prints of this girl’s work and some of that of her 
roommate.  They said the artist’s name was Serena Serene.  

	“Hey Peggy?” I called out as I chopped the celery into small curved rectangles.
	“Yeah Serena?” she called back.  Peggy was in the living room finishing a new 
sketch from her dream last night.  
	“Do you want tomegano dressing, or oil and vinegar?” Tomegano was my version 
of Tomato and Oregano.  It was a heck of a lot easier to say, even if some people laughed 
at me.  I scraped the celery off the cutting board and into the bowl with the rest of the 
salad.  It was my night to make dinner.  Peggy laughed lightly.
	“Tomegano Sere, I know it’s your favorite!”
	“Thanks Pegs!”  Peggy and I are artists.  We live in this cute little house in 
Tokyo, all covered in flowers and stuff.  It was so perfect and cute, any woman’s dream 
house for sure!  My real name is Serena Tsukino, it means Serena Moon, but I sign my 
paintings as Serena Serene, because it sounds better.  Besides, the moon goddess is 
supposedly named Serenity, so it’s not too far off.  Peggy on the other hand… Her real 
name is Peggy Jones, but she signs her paintings as Lonnie Loni.  I think she’s afraid of 
what people would think of her if they knew the real her, but she has nothing to worry 
about!  She’s sweet and funny and kind, and really romantic!  And she’s such a great 
artist and cook and just about anything else you can think of, not to mention friend.  I 
tossed the salad, added the dressing, tossed it again and put it down on the kitchen table 
before cleaning up the kitchen.  The steak was already done and set out.  After that, I put 
out some food for my cat, Luna.
	Funny thing about Luna… She just… ‘Showed up’ one day.  She’s black and has 
this cute little crescent moon mark on her forehead.  Sometimes I swear, she’s like a 
human… But back to dinner… (Yummy!) Peggy washed her hands and joined me at the 
table.
	“So what’s this one about?” I ask, nodding towards her latest sketch.
	“It’s a portrait of the Queen.  The good one that is.”  She says between bites.  I 
nod understandingly.
	“Serenity.” She nods back.  It’s kind of crazy… we’ve been having these dreams 
for a few years now.  Every night is like a memory of some long forgotten time… They 
take place on the moon and they’re so graphic!  I feel as if I’m walking down the halls of 
the great castle myself.  In our dreams, I’m the princess of the moon kingdom and next 
ruler of the galaxy.  Peggy is a friend of mine of high birth.  I can remember each day as 
if I lived it… And I think we’re getting close to the end now.  The dreams started a few 
days after we found Luna, which was a few days after we moved in together.  Like 
destiny almost… Every time we wake up, we write them down in our ‘Silver Millennium 
Journals’.  A series of blank books, just for writing the dreams in.  We pick and choose 
who gets to paint which scene from them.  Someday, I think we might even publish the 
whole story… Someday. And maybe someday I’ll find the prince from the dreams.  I 
never can really quite see his eyes, so I make them up a little when I’m painting him.  
Imagining how he would look at me, how his eyes would shine, sparkle… How the light 
would hit them just so… But I know he probably doesn’t exist.  Well, part of me knows 
that at least.  The other half of me wonders.  If I’ve found my guardians from that time (A 
few of my friends, who are in the dreams) then couldn’t he exist too?  Foolish dreams, 
but I love them anyway.
	Ami is a friend of mine, and the blue ‘soldier-scout’ from my dreams.  Mercury, 
my heart seems to tell me.  She runs a bookstore on Tenth Street called Mercury’s Dream 
World.
	Rei, the red ‘soldier-scout’ from my dreams, and yet another friend of mine.  She 
owns a flower shop beside Ami’s bookstore, called Phobos’ and Deimo’s Flower Shop.  
Phobos and Deimos are the two moons of Mars and the names of her two pet crows, so as 
you can guess, my heart tells me she is Mars.
	Lita is another friend, the green ‘soldier-scout’ of my dreams.  Next to Rei’s shop 
is her Restaurant, ‘Io’s Obsession’.  Io is the moon of Jupiter, so she is Jupiter too.
	Mina is one of my friends who looks remarkably like me.  She owns a Tuxedo 
Rental store next to Lita’s place.  It’s called ‘The Rose Gardens of Venus’, though I don’t 
know why.  She said it had something to do with a dream.  I’ll have to ask her about that 
sometime.  She is the gold ‘soldier-scout’ of Venus. 
	Those are my ‘guardians’ though there are other friends I have who appear in my 
dreams… Like Molly, who was my attendant on the moon.  She runs a computer store 
with her husband Melvin.  They’re cute together, even if Melvin is kind of a nerd… But 
he’s a heck of a lot better than he was in high school, so that’s ok I guess. 
	“What are you doing tomorrow?” Peggy asks me.
	“I think I’ll go put another picture up at the exhibit.  That one with the soldier-
scouts, the princess and everyone… The collage (A group of pictures all over-laying each 
other) group one?” 
	“Ahh, I like that one!  I’ll meet you at the café for lunch around twelve then?” she 
offers.
	“Sure!  Better make it twelve-thirty.  I want to get some shopping done first, ‘k?”
	“Great!”  
	We finished doing the dishes and went to bed.  
Our rooms are as different as we are.  My room is done in pale blue, darkening as 
it goes up and deep, twilight blue on the ceiling.  It has silver stars and planets and such 
painted on in a map of the solar system, or how it looked from the moon.  My furniture is 
all done in silver and white and my bed spread is light blue with bunnies, moons and stars 
on it.  The same one I had when I was a kid.  
Peggy’s room is all light pink with flowers everywhere.  Her furniture is all deep 
rosewood.  She says there’s something about roses and the moon that just seem so right… 
We both have windows on either side of the house with large window seats for writing or 
sketching or thinking or whatever… Peggy doesn’t have a computer and I do.  We share 
a bathroom etc.  Her towels are blue and mine are pink.  Kind of funny since our rooms 
are the opposite colors… I would have painted my room pink, but I just had that great 
dream where I was watching the stars from the moon, and I had to do my room like that.  
I’m pretty happy with it actually. 
	I let my hair down, brushed it out, changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed 
after opening the blinds.  I love sleeping in full moonlight.  Luna seems to as well, 
because she always sits at the window watching the sky when there’s a full moon.  I soon 
fell into a deep sleep….

	When I woke up, I hit my alarm before rolling over and hiding my head under the 
pillow.  “Just five more minutes, please mom…” I mumble.  But then I remember that I 
was going to get that painting to the exhibit today and I bounce out of bed with newfound 
energy.  I close my blinds and got dressed, ate and washed before leaving for downtown, 
portfolio in hand.  
	It’s a beautiful day outside, the sun is shinning, there are only a few clouds in the 
sky and a soft breeze ruffles my meatball hair.  I used to hate calling it that.  Meatballs.  
There was this guy when I was about fourteen who used to call me Meatball head.  It was 
really annoying.  I can’t even remember his name now, but the meatball bit stuck.  I 
laughed a little at that.  I suppose they do sort of look like meatballs.  Oh well.  I smiled 
brightly as I walked into the Museum of Young and Aspiring Artists.  “Hey George!” I 
say to the door-guy.  He smiles at me and nods.  
	“Mr. Eddings is in the blue room talking to someone.  I think he’s interested in 
your work.” George says.
	“Thanks!” I reply cheerily and walk briskly to the blue room.  Mr. Eddings is 
there all right, just like George said, and he’s talking to some guy whose back is turned to 
me.  The blue room is where most of my work is put.
	“Hey David!” I say brightly.  Mr. Eddings (David) turns around and smiles at me.
	“Hello Serena!  Got another piece for me?” His eyes twinkle a bit at that.  He 
loves my paintings.  David kind of reminds me of a father or something.  
	“Yup!  That sketch I showed you last week?” I reply as I kneel down and open 
my portfolio, picking the painting out of it and putting various sketches and drafts and 
other paintings aside.  I hand it to him. He can find a frame for it somewhere…
	“It’s perfect!  This will definitely round out your exhibit Serena!” he says smiling.
	“Can you find me a frame?  I want to put it up and then go shopping.  I’m meeting 
Lonnie for lunch.”
	“Peggy?”
	“Yeah.” I answer as he looks for a spare frame in the supply closet.
	“I know the drill.”
	“Of course.” I reply calmly.  Whenever we’re around someone who doesn’t know 
our real names, David Pegs and I use our other names.  David knows I won’t trust 
someone with that unless I’ve decided myself.  Can’t have too many people knowing, 
now can we?
	Actually, this guy is pretty cute.  Short black hair that keeps falling in his 
amazing blue eyes. Something familiar about him, but I just can’t place it… I’m not 
going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I think he’s cute though, because I’ve 
had some pretty bad relationships in my past, and all of them seem to be with guys with 
dark hair and blue eyes….
	David emerges from the closet triumphantly with a nice frame and puts the 
painting in it.  I wander around the room, ignoring the other man while I look for a good 
spot for the painting.  It’s kind of hard though, because I can feel him staring at me.  
	“How about over here?” He suggests.  I turned around and looked where he was 
pointing.  
	“Not bad…” I murmur to myself and hold the painting up there.  It looks very 
good actually.  “Not bad at all!”  I hammered a nail in and straightened the painting to my 
tastes.  
	He smiles at me, but I ignore him.  “I’ve got to get going David.  I said I’d meet 
Lonnie for lunch at 12:30 but I wanted to get some shopping in.  Tell me how the exhibit 
goes!” I say cheerily and walked out the door, waving to George on my way. 
	I spent a good hour and a half window shopping in downtown Tokyo.  I bought 
the neatest dress and a pair of shoes.  Not much worth mentioning though. I made it to the 
café (Io’s Obsession) to meet Peggy with five minutes to spare.  
	“Hey Lita!” I called out to my friend, who was standing behind the counter.  
Lita’s an amazing cook.  She has dark wavy brown hair, always pulled into a high 
ponytail and sparkling green eyes, a shade of emerald I’ve never seen on anybody else.  
	“How’s it going Serena?” she asks in a friendly manner.  She’s really nice if you 
get to know her, but if you get on her bad side…. All I can say is RUN FOR YOUR 
LIFE!
	“Pretty good, I just got another painting up at the gallery.” I say, grabbing a stool.  
The restaurant has a nice, homey but not all cheesy and junk feel to it.  Kind of Greek 
too, though they serve all types of food. 
	“Oh yeah?  The group shot?” 
	“Mhmm.” I nod. The small bells on the door chime lightly in a twinkling kind of 
fashion and Peggy walks in. 
	“Oh Serena!  I just found the most amazing model for our work!  He looks just 
like the Prince!  I got him an appointment with us tomorrow at nine am ok?  So you’d 
better wake up this time!” she teases lightly, and sits down beside me on another stool. 
“Hey Lita!  You’d like this guy, he’s cute!” Peggy adds.  I smile, and so does Lita.  
They’re always trying to set me up with people who look like the prince. 
	“Two of the usual’s?” Lita asks.
	“Sure!” we both enthuse at once, and then laugh.   A few minutes latter, during a 
warm conversation Lita brings two steaming plates to the counter in front of us.  My eyes 
widen in anticipation and I rub my hands together.  Have I ever said that Lita is the best 
cook you will ever meet?  I sure hope so, because she deserves a heck of a lot more praise 
than this.  
	One of the plates has two chicken rolls on it.  A good whole-wheat wrap with 
chicken marinated in tomegano, miracle whip, lettuce, tomato and her secret sauce.  
That’s mine, and my absolute favorite meal.  Peggy’s plate has a big juicy steak on it, 
marinated in Lita’s special mixture (No one knows what’s in it, but we all love It.), a 
Caesar salad and two milkshakes, one strawberry, one French vanilla. Lita’s ice cream is 
the best.  In fact, everything Lita makes is the best!  
	We dig in ravenously immediately and are stuffing our faces as fast as we can.   I 
love Lita’s cooking…  After a while we had both eaten our fill and went home, tipping 
Lita generously.  She is a friend after all. 
	Peggy went upstairs to work in the clay room and I took a nap on the couch.  I had 
another dream of the moon kingdom then…

	I was standing in the garden, smelling the most exquisite red rose I have ever 
seen.  We don’t get red roses on the moon, only silver, white, gold and pink.  The rest of 
our flowers come in pale, pale shades.  I’ve rarely seen such a deep red on the moon.  
And the only person who would give that to me would have to be…  I look up and smile 
at my lover.  “Oh Endy, It’s perfect!  I love it, thank you!”  I say softly.  He smiles back 
down at me tenderly.
	“It may be one of the last we see…” he says sadly.  
	“Don’t talk like that!” I say softly again.  That seems to be the only way I can talk 
when I’m in the garden.  He leans down and kisses me gently.  For the first time in my 
dreams I can see his eyes clearly, if only for a second.  They are a deep, rich blue.  Soft 
and tender and very loving.  I know I will never forget those eyes…  
	
	“Serena, wake up!  It’s almost dinner time!” Peggy chimes from the kitchen.  It’s 
her turn, and I can smell tacos.  I blearily open my eyes and smile. “I saw them Peggy.” I 
say happily as I stand up and walk into the kitchen.
	“Saw what?” she asks, stirring the meat with her spatula.
	“His eyes… They were so amazing Peggy…” She smiles.  
	“I believe you.  Now lets eat, ok?  I’m starved!”  They laughed and went on with 
the normal routine.

	“Is the tea done Serena?”  Peggy asked as she came into the kitchen to throw out 
the box from the cookies she had set out on a tray.  “He should be here any minute!” 
	“Yeah, it’s done.” I answered, pouring it out into two cups and leaving the third 
empty.  I fixed mine weak with lots of sugar and Peggy’s weak with cream.  Different 
people, different tastes I guess.  
	“DING-DONG!” The doorbell chimed.  Peggy looked up.  “Can you get that?  I’ll 
finish with the tea.” 
	“Sure!” I say, wiping my hands off on a dishtowel.  I walked up to the door and 
opened it, smiling.  That man from the gallery yesterday was standing on my doorstep.  
“Can I help you?” I asked, confused.  What was he doing here?
	“Yes, I’m supposed to model for Lonnie and you today.” He said.  I think he was 
confused too.
	“Oh!  Well, come in then!  We were just making some tea!”  He stepped inside 
and smiled to himself.  I think he was looking at the roses.  We had lots of them around.  
“Peggy and I’ll set up in that room there.  Make yourself at home.” I say as cheerily as I 
can.  Now that I think about it, he does look a lot like Endymion…  I still haven’t gotten 
a good look at his eyes though…
	He sat down in the middle of the couch and took one cookie absently. They must 
have been good, because he smiled again, bringing some dimples out of hiding in his 
cheeks.  ‘Cute!’ I thought.  I went into the closet and pulled out a new sketchbook, as I 
had finished off my other one last night on Endy’s eyes. Like I said, I never want to 
forget those eyes.  I sat down in a chair across from the couch and next to Peggy’s chair 
and whipped out some charcoal.  Peggy sat down next to me and did the same. I picked 
up the Silver Millennium journal (#8) and pointed out the paragraph I wanted to do to 
Peggy.  She nodded and chose hers.  I was pretty happy. 
	We got to work immediately.  The scene I was doing was the garden scene from 
last night.  Peggy was doing the Prince standing under a balcony on a foggy night by the 
castle.    
	Darien looked around nervously.  They sure weren’t saying much… And that girl 
from the gallery looked really familiar.  He just couldn’t seem to remember where 
from… He shook his head.  Lonnie looked up at him. “Try not to move Darien.” She said 
simply before continuing with her sketch.  Serena was more of a puzzle.  She looked up 
at him and smiled re-assuringly before continuing with her sketch.  They both glanced up 
periodically to see what they were drawing, but in different ways.  Lonnie seemed to 
glance over him in one quick look, kind of short and not too particular.  Serena on the 
other hand looked at one thing at a time.  The way I sat, how big my feet were, whatever.  
She looked kind of perplexed, and I wondered why.
	
	I glance back at him again and add another line to my picture.  It’s strange.  He’s 
almost exactly like Endy.  Everything!  That’s why I haven’t dared to look at his eyes yet.  
I’m afraid that if I do, I’ll see him there, and fall for him.  I really don’t want to do that.  
My last relationship was terrible.  I had totally fallen for the guy, but when I refused to 
sleep with him, he dumped me and kicked me out of his apartment.  He even had the 
nerve to spread vicious rumors about me afterwards.  I’ve stayed away from the dating 
scene for a few months now and I still don’t want to go back.  Especially with another 
Endy look a like. 
	I have finally gotten to his face.  I started drawing the hair, strong outline of a 
chin etc.  He really does have nice features, I concede. 

	I am more puzzled now.  She seems to be drawing my face, but avoiding my eyes 
at all costs.  What could be so frightening about them?  I thought that people liked my 
eyes.  That’s what my last few girl friends had said at any rate…

	And now, all that’s left is the eyes.  I slowly raised my head, inch by inch.  ‘You 
shouldn’t do this Serena.  You’ll only get hurt.’ Part of me says.  ‘Go for it!’ says another 
part. ‘He could be the one!’  ‘I don’t know about you guys, but I’m hungry.’ Said the 
third part.  I had to keep myself from laughing and decided it couldn’t be that bad, I 
could take it.  I finish raising my head and looked straight into his eyes.  What I saw, 
blew my mind.  
	Those eyes weren’t what I had thought they would be… They were… close.  The 
same rich blue color, the same shape, the same way the light reflected off them.  But… 
they didn’t look at me lovingly or with the same knowledge I had.  They didn’t 
remember.  I was pretty disappointed, but figured that if he doesn’t remember than he’s 
safe to like.  I smiled sadly and bent my head to add the eyes to it.  

	I watched her curiously.  She lifted her head slowly, as if scared almost.  But then 
a smile crept across her face and she looked up into my eyes.  Shock registered across her 
face, plainly. That was followed by a thousand emotions all in a sequence to complicated 
for me to follow.  She smiled then and went back to drawing.  
	I sat there, ass confused and in the dark as ever.  First, she had totally ignored me 
at the gallery, then she was nice to me at the door, and now?  Now she was confusing the 
heck out of me!  What am I supposed to do here?!  I sullenly wish that I had a script to 
this or something so I could read her part and figure out what the heck all that meant.
	
	The time went rather quickly after that with me lost in my thoughts and Serena 
not avoiding my eyes anymore.  Finally, Lonnie told me I could move.  I stood up and 
stretched, I think my legs had fallen asleep.  I walked over and looked at Lonnie’s sketch.  
	I swear, I could have… I could have… well… done something really stupid right 
then!  It was exactly like my dream!  The one where I stand in front of a castle and this 
girl I can’t see on the balcony above me speaks to me… I shook my head and walked 
over to see Serena’s sketch.  I could think of this latter. I peeked over her shoulder to see 
some girl and I (Sort of looked like a cross between her and that dream princess of mine) 
in a rose garden.  She was just doing the background now.  
	There was obviously more to these two than met the eyes.

	“Well thanks for coming Darien, we’ll have to use you again sometime. Thanks!” 
Lonnie said as she saw me out the door.  Serena was in the kitchen cleaning something I 
think.  
	“I’d love to Lonnie.  Bye!” I said and walked away.

	I sat on a stool in the kitchen, reading the latest of Code name wa: Sailor V.  I’ve 
been addicted to these things since I was a kid and just can’t seem to stop.
	“Why didn’t you say good bye?” Peggy asks me as she comes into the kitchen.
	“I just saw some things in him that I need a bit of time to work out is all.” I say 
softly, and went upstairs to work on a clay figurine I’ve been working on.  It’s a small 
statuette of the Royal moon family, or me and my ‘mother’ Queen Serenity.  My father 
died on the moon of cancer when I was only a few months old.  Or at least, that’s what 
my dreams say.  I worked on several clay works for the rest of the day.

Good?  Bad?  E-Mail me at moonklutz@hotmail.com and look at the rest of my works, and 
other people’s work at http://fly.to/moonworld

THANKS TO: Alicia, a constant source of inspiration
		Andy: For taking me to the comic book store today! (Yea!)
		Nerces: being the best brother a girl could have in these hard times… =(
		Super Krys, Queen of The X-Philes: For being exactly the distraction I 
needed right now…
Luvs ya!~
Always, from Klutz