Cute-in-a-Cup

Bronia had been wide awake and running about the Dark Forest long before Middle-of-Nowhere’s only rooster, known by the affectionate moniker of Sir Alarm Clock the Bothersome, had begun his discordant crowing.  Her yellow-green eyes popped opened, her pupils dilating when her brother, Mietek, leapt onto her bed and tugged at her tattered dress’s sleeve at the very stroke of midnight, hissing “Little Johnny is gone” into her ear as the clock pounded out the late hour. “He ran to the Dark Forest!”  Mary, his twin sister, added, wiping a tear off the corner of her blue eye with her intricately embroidered han