“I never knew there were so many stars,” said Harry, staring up in amazement. His mum, who was holding his hand, looked too.
“Well,” she said, “you don’t get to see them like this in the city. There are too many streetlights.”
“But why?”
“Hmm?”
“Why are there so many streetlights? Don’t people want to see all the stars?”
“I guess not, mate. I guess not.”
They carried on down the trail, heading back towards the campsite. “Mum,” Harry said. “What are stars made of?”
They stopped. Harry’s mum crouched down to his level. “That’s an interesting question,” she said, with a smile. “Look.” She pointed in the sky, moved her finger around a little, as if she were looking for something. “There. See that one?” Harry nodded, although he couldn’t, really. There were a few clumped so close together that it was hard to pick out the exact one she meant. “That’s your nanny.”
“Really?”
“Yep. Aaaaaaaand that one, that’s my uncle Frank. You never met him. But he was the one who told me about the stars. And now I’m telling you.”
“So, when we die…”
“God takes us to heaven and turns on a little light in the sky, so that the people on Earth can see that we’re alright.”
Harry scanned his eyes across the thousands, the millions of stars that were in the night sky. “That’s nice,” he said.
“Yeah. It is.”
* * * *
“I never knew there were so many stars,” said Tessa, holding Harry’s hand as they laid on the hill together. She snuggled closer to him.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” he said. “Hiding in plain sight most of the time, unless you’re out here. It’s one of my favourite places in the world.”
“I can see why.”
He sighed. “My mum brought me here when I was a kid. Showed me the stars. That’s why I do what I do.”
Tessa rolled on top of him and kissed him. “She’d be really proud of you.”
“I hope she would.”
His eyes scanned across the galaxy, but not as randomly as they did when he was a child. He saw the constellations, could pick out the planets. The map of the Milky Way had been burned into his mind by years of constant study.
It didn’t really fit with what his mum had said all those years ago, but he liked to think of her as Sirius. The brightest star in his sky, and one of the closest, and he wanted to still be as close to her as possible.
“I’m really going to miss you,” Tessa said.
“I’ll be home before you know it. And we can talk every day.”
“It’s not the same. Why do you have to go so far away?”
He gently rolled her off and sat upright. He pointed in the sky, directly at Sirius. “See that star?” Tessa didn’t, really. There were a few clumped so close together that it was hard to pick out the exact one he meant.
“The really bright one?”
“Yeah. When you get sad, when you miss me, when you feel like crying…look at that star and think of me.”
A tear formed in her eye. “That’s where you’ll be?”
“Yes,” he lied. “That’s where I’ll be. But when you look at that star, I’ll also be right here, with you, at this moment.”
She hugged him. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
* * * *
“I never knew there were so many stars,” said Ella, looking out of the porthole of their ship. Everything had gone according to plan so far. Earth was thousands of miles behind them, and they were adrift amongst the Milky Way. They were surrounded, in every direction, by blackness, punctuated by millions of pinpricks of light. It was almost too much for them to comprehend.
Harry couldn’t stop smiling. “I can’t believe it. I’m here. We’re here.”
“Yeah,” she replied. “We are.” They floated towards each other and hugged, quite awkwardly. Being in real zero-gravity was a weird feeling for them both, even after the years of training for their mission.
He joined her in looking out the window, and his eyes fell quickly onto Sirius. “See that star?” he said.
“Sirius?”
“Yeah. It’s my favourite. Maybe one day, because of us, someone will get to go there. How amazing is that?”
“I know. We’re pioneers, alright. Shame we won’t get a chance to see it ourselves.”
“I think we’d be greedy to get to see that, too,” Harry said. “Have to leave something for our descendants.”
Ella chuckled. “Maybe you’re right. For now: next stop, Mars!”
They were to be the first humans to ever set foot on another planet. The eyes of the Earth would be upon them. And as Harry looked at Sirius again, he hoped that his mum’s would be, too.
Shane Rynhart 