Unknown until Heaven

The wish

"Look, that's Pluto. See how it's brighter than some of the others?" Sam twisted a lense on my telescope.

"Mhm. And Pluto is part of that belt?" I replied, squinting through it into the vast night sky.

"Yep! The Kuiper belt." Sam pulled away from the telescope, then turned it to face a different direction. "See that glow there?"

"Yeah." I pulled away from the telescope and wiped my palms on my shorts, then rubbed my eyes. "God, everything's so small now."

He laughed, grabbing my hands to pull them away from the telescope. "And some things you can't even see."

"It's so crazy how much they're is out there." He'd taken me to a small, grassy hill an hour away from my home, Kansas City. There were so many more stars in the sky here. There seemed to be more star than sky.

"And to think, your on,y seeing the absolute most tiny, tiny, tiny fraction on the galaxy- and the galaxy is only micro fraction of the universe, and-"

"Shut up," I laughed. "I do not want to hear any more about what we don't know."

"Why not? Isn't it interesting?" He asked.

"Of course." I looked back at the stars, hesitating. "But.. don't you wish at least someone had every answer to every question, sometimes? Like there wasn't so much stuff we fully relied on that we aren't even completely sure of?"

"Who doesn't? But honestly, Sage...isn't that how we make every decision? Like driving to a grocery store. You never know if your going to get ran over. Even just taking a walk. You never know what creep might follow you home."

"True." I laughed, turning back to the telescope. "What's that?" I asked as I focused on a slightly brighter glow.

He leaned over to see what I was taking about, but barely had to hesitate to answer. "Beetlejuice."

"I've heard of that one."

"Yeah. That's one of my favorites."

"Why?" I asked, watching the bright glow.

"The thing about everything being so far away is everything here is literally history. The light were seeing is from hundreds of thousands of years ago."

I'd known this, of course. But I had to ask, "Doesn't that apply to everything out there?"

"Sure, of course it does." He paused. "But Scientists say that Beetlejuice is probably not even a star currently. It's already an empty back hole. But we still see it as a star, because we haven't seen it explode. And we may not for another thousand years. But it doesn't really exist anymore."

"Wait." I laughed. "So technically speaking, we could witness a star explosion right now?"

"Anytime." He smiled.

"That's...." I didn't know what to say.

"Like I said, everything is history. But Beetlejuice could literally cease to exist in mere seconds to our eyes."

I didn't reply. I stretched my arm forward, as if instinctively trying the grab the fiery ball of gas out of thin air. Instead I felt something else caught in my closing palm, and I pulled away from the telescope.

"A lightning bug." Sam chuckled.

"Firefly," I corrected, smiling wistfully at my closed fist. I began to open it, when Sam quickly closed his palm over mine.

"Wait." He commanded. "Make a wish."

I shook my head and laughed. "I don't have anything to wish for."

"Of course you do." He smiled. "Everyone had something."

"No, I-" I trailed off when I thought maybe he was right. I met his periwinkle eyes and realized I did have something to wish for, after all.

I starred up into the stars, silently repeating my cry into the universe as I released my hands, praying with all my heart that it would come true. The firefly lit up as it flew out into the open, starry sky, and away until we could no longer see its glow.

Sam silent,y watched it go, a smile hidden on his lips.

"How many galaxies are there?" I asked him. He'd brought me here to teach my astronomy- not to make wishes.

"Unknown." He grinned. "Somewhere around two trillion, people think."

Too big of a number to fit in my head. "And each one of them has millions of stars?"

"Billions," he corrected. "More than the grains of snad on this earth."

"And each star has its own planets?"

"Most." He tilted his head to study me.

"And there are two trillion galaxies?"

"People think," he replied. "But we can never be sure."

"So that leaves a lot of planets." I tried to smile.

"I think I know where your going. And the answer is... maybe."

I shuddered. "If there were other life, would they be like us?"

"How would anyone know?" Sam laughed. "And... the thing is, the odds of any life anywhere is like, one in a trillion. But... with so many possibilities.... Who knows?"

"No one," I said, even though I knew that was just an expression. "I hate not knowing things." That's why I wanted to be a writer. To have my own storied would mean complete control over them. Knowing the start, and the end. Being able to control what happens. Who everyone is. But real life was just too full of surprises and set backs.

"But if everyone knew everything, wouldn't that make life boring?" Sam countered. "Honestly, I like surprises."

"That makes one of us. Wouldn't you rather be able to decide everything for yourself?"

He laughed. "Of course not. I'd make to dumbest decisions. I'd probably be miserable."

I was a little taken aback by his answer. "I guess."

"That's all anyone can ever do." He smiled, then suddenly grabbed my hand and pointed to a shooting star, blazing across the sky. It lasted for two mere seconds, but it may have been the best moment of the night.

"Sam," I started, kicking my shoe. "Do you think there's other life out there?"

He hesitated. "I don't know what to think. That's just one thing no one is ever going to know."

"Yeah," I replied, smiling slightly. "I think there is." I added after a moment.

"So do I." He whispered.

I turned to study him, and maybe it was just the moment- or my tiredness form how late it was- but I reached forward and grabbed his hands, feeling a tingle rush through wherever our skin met. I smiled as I glanced form the sky to his bright eyes and slowly whispered one thing I could be absolutely certain of.

"One of many mysteries that's going to be unknown until heaven."