The Museum After Hours

When the last visitor walked out through the great wooden doors, the museum became completely still. The clock in the tower struck eight soft chimes, and outside the darkness settled gently over the city. In the front hall, the night guard Bertil lit his small lantern. It glowed warmly, like an old friend just waking up. Bertil smiled to himself. Now began his favorite time of the day, the evening rounds.

Bertil had worked at the museum for many years. He knew every corridor, every staircase, every small creak in the floorboards. He knew which lamps glowed a little dimmer than the others, and which windows rattled gently when the wind blew. With his lantern in hand, he began his rounds. 'Good evening, old house', he whispered. And the house seemed to breathe quietly back.

The first hall was the fossil hall. In the middle stood an enormous dinosaur skeleton, tall as a tree. It was one of Bertil's favorites. He liked to call her Lina, even though she wasn't small at all. The lantern light wandered across the polished bones, and the shadows settled softly against the floor. 'Goodnight, Lina', said Bertil, nodding kindly toward the great big skull.

The statues in the corner of the hall stood perfectly still. They were two stone figures from a long-ago time, with kind faces and worn-down hands. Bertil smiled a little as he walked past. People say statues only stand still when someone is watching, but of course that is just an old tale. Bertil always looked at them a moment longer, just in case they might want to stretch. They didn't. They never do.

Bertil walked on into the next room. Here hung large oil paintings in heavy gold frames. In one painting, a cow rested in a summer meadow. In another, a little ship sailed between blue waves. In the largest, an old garden stood in full bloom. Bertil paused for a moment in front of each painting. 'Sleep well, cow', he whispered. 'Sleep well, ship. Sleep well, garden.'

High up in the ceiling there was a little dome of painted glass. By day it shone in all the colors of the rainbow, but now it was almost black. Almost, because the moon had just begun to climb above the rooftops outside, and its first rays were falling in through the dome like thin silver threads. Bertil tilted his head back and looked up. It seemed as if the moon was saying hello to him through the window.