Short Stories

The Song of The Stars

The dim moonlight that shone from behind his curtains bounced off of his bedroom wall, illuminating the clock that hung upon them. It read ’11:11’

 He whined in dismay as his eyes flickered up to check the time, rolling onto his stomach and huffing, folding his arms in front of him and pouting at his pillow.

It was like this every single night. He could never manage to drift off. He had tried everything. Warm milk, relaxing music, he even paced around the landing outside of his bedroom in hope that it would make him tired enough to actually fall asleep.

 Nothing worked anymore. He was doomed to never sleep again, his little 10-year-old mind whizzing off into the dark corners of his thoughts as he lay awake, sighing and trying to find comfortable sleeping positions (not that he would be sleeping in any of said positions) and wishing that for just one moment, he would feel even just a tiny bit sleepy.

 Deciding that his current laying position wasn’t comfortable enough, he wriggled around to lay on his back, folding his arms behind his head and sighing quietly. He looked at the arms of his pyjamas, seeing little tiny fabric pills around the elbows, figuring that he had nothing better to do with his time, he began to pick at them.

 As he mindlessly tried to drive this sleepless night away, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, outside of his window.

 A tiny, little star shining in the ocean of the clear, moonlit sky.

 Squinting and pushing himself up, he gazed up out of the window, wondering why there was just one little speck in the sky, and what exactly it was, and why it was getting closer to hi-

 Suddenly, the object began to shoot toward his bedroom window, crashing through the glass and rolling to the other side of his room.

 The boy let out a squeak of surprise, wincing as he realised his window was broken, wondering what he would tell his mother in the morning. Curious, he slowly slithered out of bed barefoot, cautiously avoiding the glass as he tip-toed over to the object, carefully picking it up.

 It was a relatively large black mason jar, which was emitting a strange kind of glow, although it were about to burst it’s lid off and explode. There was a small brown parcel-paper tag attached to the lid. Wandering back to his bed, the boy lay down and kicked his legs up onto the mattress, reading the label.

‘The stars are always shining, whether it be day or night, light or dark, good or bad, the stars will always be there for you when you need them’

 Frowning at the poem, which didn’t make much sense to him, he pondered about the contents of the jar, debating to himself whether he should open it.

 Well, for all he could know, this jar could be the home to some sort of grumpy creature that wouldn’t take well to being disturbed, it could have some sort of noxious gas inside that would make him pass out, heck, it could contain anything, he didn’t even know if it came from this planet.

 Turning it in his hands, he wondered, what if this jar came from some far-flung galaxy, from a planet populated by evil aliens trying to wipe out the human race, opening this jar could be deadly to humanity.

 But still, curiosity took over and the boy slowly lifted the handle of the jar, pointing it to the ceiling nervously.

 Nothing.

 Pouting, he gently shook the jar, wondering what had happened.

 Then, slowly, a single solitary star drifted out of the jar, floating toward the ceiling and hovering in mid-air.

 “That’s it?” The boy thought, frowning in confusion, thinking something bigger would have happened, dropping the jar onto his bed and standing up on his duvet to look at the little ball of light, emitting a soothing glow that lit up the space above his bed.

 Before he could comprehend it, the boy was pushed backwards and he toppled onto his backside, the jar suddenly exploding as hundreds upon hundred of stars shot out, sending the jar whizzing around his room like a deflating balloon, flying up and down, looping round and round, making the boy dizzy as he followed it.

 The jar eventually ran out of stars and dropped to the floor, rolling to the boys feet. He picked it up and sighed in relief, hoping his family hadn’t woken up. Then he looked up at the ceiling, and oh, what a sight he saw.

 Stars. Thousands of stars forming into baby supernovas and galaxies right above his bed. Clouds of different coloured gases built nebulas that swirled all the way around his room, illuminating all corners in every single hue imaginable, from the palest rosy pink to the brightest sapphire blue. Clusters of stars magically swirled around, turning into constellations that the boy recognised from the old, peeling poster on his bedroom wall that he always consoled to when he went through a sleepless night, always finding comfort in the stars.

 Eyes glittering, the boy’s mouth stretched into a toothy grin as he flopped back on the bed, pulling the duvet up to his chest and gazing up at the swirling whirlpool galaxy that hovered above his bed, emitting a soft, comforting celestial hum. The only way he could think to describe it was ‘the sound of space’, and right now, he had his own little mini-space to sing him a lullaby. All of the different clusters of stars and sut and gases made very different noises, almost like some sort of cosmological choir, all harmonising in unison, and it was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard.

 His eyes flickered around, trying to take it all in as his stomach filled with a warm, soothing feeling, his eyes drooping closed and snapping shut again as he willed himself to stay awake, but found himself so immensely sleepy that he just couldn’t keep his eyes open, and he allowed them to slowly slide shut, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, he fell asleep, slowly ushered to another world by the song of the stars.