SCAN MAGAZINE WINTER 2022
Luce listened, her whole body tense for the right moment. Slim, the gray cat curled in her lap, found her impatience irritating. He flicked one ear back and stretched, pricking her thigh with his claws through the patchwork quilt. She scratched between his ears and he turned to look at her, eyes glowing in the moonlight of the open window. It was a full, golden, end-ofsummer moon. The buck moon. She had work to do. The cat seemed to understand. He lifted his chin, sniffed the warm night air and sprang from the bed to the window ledge and down out of sight. Luce went through the checklist in her head. She had everything packed in the Food City bag already: kitchen shears, twine, a flashlight, an old jam jar, an empty water bottle, her favorite rocks, a candle, rosemary from her garden and a matchbook marked “Lucky’s.”
FULL BUCK
MOON
(short story) Written by Hannah Mosley Illustrated by Ajani Pratt
