A Lullaby & The Introduction to My Book, The Light Gatherers {New Music Monday}

This is a very special New Music Monday, and I appreciate that you’re here, visiting my website.

I’ve been working on a book for a little over a year, called The Light Gatherers. (You can read the Prologue to the book here, which I wrote as a writing exercise as part of The Habit.) I don’t feel like any book is complete without a poem or a song; most of my favorite books include at least one or the other. The Hobbit includes the songs in which the dwarves sing about helping Bilbo with the dishes and the Lonely Mountain. The Princess and the Goblin includes Curdie’s rhymes, which scare away the Goblins. Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner include many of Pooh’s ‘hums’. (See this post for our favorite.) You can even find videos on Youtube of J.R.R. Tolkien singing some of the songs from Middle Earth. It’s breathtaking.

So, in the tradition of great authors like Tolkien, MacDonald, and A.A. Milne, and at an appropriate spot in The Light Gatherers, I wrote the following lullaby and composed music to go with it. I also included the Introduction to my book as part of this post, which follows directly after the Prologue in the layout of the book and the chronology of the story. Chapter 1 follows the Introduction and picks up after Alex turns 14, and Olive sings the lullaby in Chapter 7. It is the lullaby that her mother sang to her and Alex as children. I hope you enjoy them both, and thank you for reading and listening!

Introduction to The Light Gatherers

Alex, Olive, and their parents sat around a small table playing a favorite family game. Alex had just scored two points on Olive, while Alex and Olive’s parents were beating them both by tens of points. The game was a little too hard for Olive, who was only three years old, but Alex mostly understood how to gain points and wallop enemies. He liked to let Olive get ahead of him sometimes, but tonight he wanted to prove to his parents that six-year-olds can do what’s important and wise, even when their parents don’t expect them to yet. Alex picked up the dice to roll. He had his next few moves planned. His mom laughed at something his dad said, and Olive’s eyes sparkled like twinkling stars.

Suddenly Alex’s mom’s face changed. She looked intently at the window behind Alex. Alex turned around, and saw the angry face of a man glaring through the smudged glass pane. He wore a long, black cloak and a badge pinned to his left shoulder. Alex couldn’t make out all the words, but he knew they said something about the Premier. All the Premier’s People wore them, and they were no more badges of honor than trash is treasure. Alex also noticed the word “Captain” stitched in large letters on the man’s collar. The man pulled a small pistol from inside his belt, and tapped the window with it three times. Then, he smiled, which sent ants crawling down Alex’s spine. Alex had never seen something so twisted and confused before. Alex’s mom looked at his dad, and then his dad nodded to the man outside. Alex’s mom and dad drew Alex and Olive in close. Alex’s dad whispered, “Remember what we taught you, solntsa? Go upstairs and hide in the closet. And be strong! They may find you, but don’t let them separate you.”

“We love you, solntsa,” Alex’s mom said. She kissed Alex on the head and Olive on the cheek. “Go now,” she said.

Alex tried to look calm. He strolled up the stairs and took just one furtive glance back at his parents. He saw his dad clench and unclench his fists. A strange glow surrounded them. Olive followed closely behind Alex, grabbing the back of his shirt. When they got to the top of the stairs, out of sight of the man with the pistol, they began to run. They ran into the little bunk-bed room they shared and ducked into the closet. Alex shut the door tightly and quietly. Olive snuggled up close to his shoulder and he put his arm around her. “I’ll keep you safe,” he whispered. He kissed the top of her head like his mom had done for him moments earlier.

Alex and Olive felt the room begin to shake. Toys from the shelves in the closet fell on top of them. Alex hunched over Olive to protect her from the cascading dolls and blocks. Light shone up between the floorboards. The little closet became so bright that instead of hunching over Olive, Alex had to stop and cover his eyes. Olive covered her eyes, too, and they sat shivering next to each other wondering what the light and the shaking meant. Alex heard floorboards creaking and groaning, and then falling to the floor. He opened the closet door and looked into the room as well as he could. A chunk of the floor was missing right above the kitchen table where they had been playing the game. The light seemed the brightest there. Alex wanted to investigate, but he chose to stay with Olive instead—an important and wise decision. Alex hugged Olive tighter as he heard a gunshot ricochet across the room below. He heard a second gunshot, followed by cursing and bellowing.

The light subsided. Alex heard loud voices shouting up the stairs and heavy boots stamping across the kitchen floor. He listened to the noises travel up the stairs, into the bedroom, and past the hole in the floor. The closet door clicked open. The same man that Alex had seen through the window reached into the closet and grabbed Olive by the wrist. Another man wearing an identical black cloak, but a smaller badge, reached into the closet and grabbed Alex by the shoulder.

The two men brought Alex and Olive outside, where three more men joined them. Olive began to cry and Alex felt angry, at the men and at his parents. He wanted to protect Olive—no, he must protect Olive. He stomped on the foot of captain, but the captain didn’t even flinch. He held Alex tighter.

“You think you can stop me?” the captain sneered.

Alex looked up at him, his jaw set and his eyes ablaze. He didn’t think he could say anything back that would wound the man, so he just stared. But his eyes began to brim with tears, too, and he looked away.

“Yes, go ahead and cry,” the captain said. “These won’t be your last tears.”

The captain and the man holding Olive shoved Alex and Olive into a car parked on the side of the road. The kids’ captors sat in front, Alex and Olive sat in the back, and the other three men stood on the bumper. They pulled their pistols out of their holsters and gazed all around the quiet street as the car rumbled past houses and buildings. Alex held Olive close as she sobbed into his shoulder. He held back his tears, to be strong for Olive, but he felt like a dam about to burst.

The men brought Alex and Olive to live at the orphanage. They went to school and wondered about their parents. Alex protected Olive as best he could. Sometimes that meant finding extra blankets during the cold winter months on Belara, and sometimes that meant helping Olive with her schoolwork. Alex wondered when things would change. Eight years passed before Alex got his answer.

The Lullaby of The Light Gatherers

Over rock beds, under hills,
Flows the water, swiftly home;
Like the water, I’ll return,
No matter how far I roam,

To hold you in my arms, dear,
To rock you like the ancient sea,
Filled from rivers, streams, and lakes,
To and from eternity.

May the King keep you safe, dear;
May he make you brave tonight;
Guard you from gathering storms,
Bear you to gathering light.