"Click!" goes the little bedside lamp, but Leo isn't quite ready to shut his eyes. He stacks up his wooden blocks as high as they can go on his lumpy mattress. With a grumpy kick, he sends his heavy quilt tumbling right off the bed and down to the floor.
He squints into the pitch-black corners of his bedroom, searching for sleepy shadows. Suddenly, a tiny silver speck blinks right by the window. The speck floats closer, revealing a glowing firefly made of twinkling starlight, and Leo drops his block with a loud clack! against the floorboards.
One tiny light spins around the bedpost, then bursts into three, and then ten! They zoom across the dark ceiling like silent, glowing tops. Leo reaches out one slow, quiet finger, whispering a gentle hello so he doesn't scare the starry bugs away.
The glowing bugs swoop down together in a sudden, brilliant wave. They snatch the corners of Leo’s tossed blanket, dragging it straight up into the air. In a flash, they swirl the heavy cloth into a floating, glowing tent stretching over the mattress.
Leo crawls underneath the shimmering fabric and sits with his legs crossed tight. Swirling blue magic paints moving shadows across his laughing face. Inside this glowing secret space, his regular bedroom ceiling disappears completely into a vast, endless starry night sky.
He pushes himself up to balance on his bare feet, swaying his arms back and forth. The glowing bugs sweep by in giant figure-eights, waiting for Leo to copy their grand dance. He hums a slow, low tune, letting his toes sink deeply into the soft sheets.
The quieter and slower he hums, the brighter and calmer the silver magic becomes. Leo lets out a massive, sleepy yawn and curls right up on his fluffy pillow. The dancing bugs slowly settle down, resting like quiet snowflakes lightly on his nose and his messy hair.
His heavy eyelids finally droop completely shut as the last glow of silver light fades into the blankets. The floating stars tuck themselves silently away between the twisted sheets for the night. In the dark, all he leaves behind is the peaceful, steady tick-tock of the bedroom clock.
