“Hush!” she whispered, and threw a blanket over him, quickly shuffling her friend backward into the closet and closing the door with a snap. With the springing agility of a cat she leapt across the room and into her bed, winding herself into the covers with a flourish and lying suddenly still as still could be done her bedroom door creaked open, and there her father looked in.

She held her breath, feigning sleep with great expertise, and her father easily convinced shut the door, it clicking gently. There was a lapse of nothing, just her motionless cocooned body in the dark, but spry like a rabbit she bounced up, rushing to the closet door and pulling it open, her friend toppling out in a yelp after having been shoved in so haphazardly.

“You could have warned me your parents were up!” her friend hissed, jumbling from his prison.

To her nightstand the girl fumbled, opening the top drawer and grabbing a tiny purple flashlight in the shape of a butterfly, and snapping it on. “Sorry,” she grimaced, “I didn’t think he would check on me this late.”

Sweeping the violet light about the room in a sort of exploratory fashion, she at last turned it upon her friend, alighting his strange, wolfish face in the purple beam. His eyes glowed brazen gold, and his fur blew out like a great mane, crowning his head, and with his small upturned nose and doglike maw he sniffed.

“Well, I think he’s downstairs now. Will he check on you again?”

The girl thought a moment before stating, “I don’t think so.” And as though she had just uttered magic words in unison their mouths spread into magnificent smiles.

“To the lighthouse, then?” he asked.

“To the lighthouse.” she solidified, and while hurrying to collect her backpack that she had hidden beneath her bed the wolf-boy went to the window and unlatched it, and in but two slight glances behind them, the pair slipped into the darkness, shushed giggles in tow.

Tonight was the night!