By Autumn Thrift
“I couldn’t sleep, so I called you.”
“Dude, I was asleep.”
“Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay.”
“…What were you dreaming about?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Oh.”
“Since you can’t sleep and I can’t remember my dream… Why don’t you tell me a story?”
“Oh, um, okay.”
“Hold on, let me turn my lamp off and lay back down.”
“Okay.”
“Alright, I’m ready.”
“Uuuhhhh…. Once upon a time there was a star on Earth. She was so beautiful, and burned so brightly but she destroyed everything she touched. It made her sad, but she learned to deal with it, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Oh, shut up. Anyway, yeah. She couldn’t help but burn up anything and everything that was near her. She tried to look at everything as best as she could from a distance, but it wasn’t enough for her. She felt isolated, miles away from everything and so, so far from anyone. A never-ending darkness surrounded her-”
“Edgy.”
“Shhh… she was alone, and it made her sad. She was stuck in space-”
“I thought you said she was on Earth?”
“Stop interrupting! She is, it just felt like she was stuck in space.”
“Oh, okay. Continue.”
“Alright, so… she was sad. And lonely. I already said that. But what she didn’t know was that there was a lonely asteroid who admired her from afar, cold and drifting, stuck in an orbit he couldn’t get out of. It was all… really, really sad. She was stuck and he was too, but he kept moving and she didn’t. She couldn’t light her own dark, and he couldn’t break his own orbit. I don’t know. This sounds bad–but don’t you dare interrupt me.
“Anyway, uh, she noticed him at some point, and she watched him as he danced around and kept moving. He was amusing. She, of course, stayed put. The lonely little star unable to have any company. Ever. Even if she stayed where she was the asteroid still watched her like before and admired her–okay, that sounds creepy, oops–and they kind of made each other happy. To know there was someone else there. They may have been on Earth but space is still vast and lonely, and that’s what was between them. Space. But there came a time where finally the asteroid made his move, and came crashing near the star. She was so happy, but so scared. She was going to burn him. The thing is, he never made it. Instead he burned while crashing to the Earth and she had to watch. She saw him streak across the sky and funnily enough he was a shooting star. She wished he’d come back, but he couldn’t. He was now just a meteor stuck on Earth, stationary and warm. She was a star who sat and waited for her time to come, and when it did she exploded beautifully, but destroyed everything in her wake. The end.”
“That was… really sad. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am. Are you tired?”
“I am. Are you?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll stay longer, if you want.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“Okay, goodnight.”
“I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Post Script Magazine. 