William and Melissa were on the roof again, looking up at the stars, waiting. William was used to this now. They used it as a disguise for talking. Will and Melissa were really close; they didn’t fight with each other like other siblings did.
This night, August twelfth, they were watching the Perseids when a bunch of meteors seemed to fall from the constellation of Perseus. The resulting display is quite stunning.
The family lived far from any city, but was closer to Phoenix, Arizona. They had a spectacular view of the sky and could see countless stars for miles.
“School’s starting soon,” Melissa said to her brother.
“Are you ready for seventh grade?” Will asked in reply.
“I don’t know.”
Will thought of when he was getting ready for seventh grade, when he watched the Perseids that year. His mom had comforted him and told him everything would be fine. He wondered where she would be now, probably somewhere along the Tropic of Cancer in the Caribbean. His dad would be in the sky, touching the stars…
He was an astronaut, and he was on the International Space Station monitoring solar flares.
“Everything’ll be alright,” Will said.
“You think so?”
“Yeah, Mrs. Rouge is really nice, and a good teacher too.”
“What if I don’t get her?”
“You will.”
“How do you know?” Melissa said, swatting a fly.
“Your schedule was sent in the mail,” Will said in a pleased tone.
“Where is it?” Melissa asked excitedly.
“Right here.” Will took the sheet of paper out of his jacket pocket and gave it to Melissa.
“Mrs. Rouge for Math and homeroom,”
“Good,”
“Mr. Bismuth for Science,”
“Grand,”
“Mr. Baize for English,”
“Mm-hm.”
“Mrs. Orlando for P.E.”
“Yes…”
“Ms. Wilcrek for History.”
“Ew.”
“Darn. And lastly, Mr. Baffin for Writing.”
“You took writing?”
“I like writing stories!”
“True. So do I. You can find a lot of writing topics here,” Will said, referring to the desert area.
“A shooting star!” Melissa exclaimed, pointing up at the stars. A shining light streaked across the sky in an orange light and then vanished. They saw three more soon after.
“Ooh, a whole army of stars!” William said.
Then, a white light (not orange) streaked across the sky, coming from a bit south and heading north, in their direction.
“It’s coming for us!” Melissa said jokingly.
The light didn’t go away. It kept going, going, going. It changed course, heading to what looked to be a point a few miles away from their house.
“Why isn’t it burning up?” Melissa asked, a little frightened.
“I don’t know…” William replied, also frightened but didn’t show it.
The star sped up and crashed into the ground a mile away from their house, a huge dust cloud raising from the spot it landed at.
“We should go check it out.” William declared immediately.
“But…it’s probably all scary and stuff…”
William wouldn’t listen; he ran through the window into his room and grabbed a flashlight from his bottom shelf. He also took a backpack and filled it with food, water, a first-aid kit, and some extra D batteries for the flashlight. Will strode out of his room onto the roof.
“Let’s roll.”
He hopped down onto the trampoline they had in the backyard and bounced a few times before walking to the stairs and heading down. Melissa followed, but she didn’t like it.
Fifteen minutes later, they were at the landing point, but nothing could be found. Finally after waving the flashlight around a few times to scan the area, they found a small star-shaped pinprick of light.
“Is this the star?” Melissa said, picking up the star.
“Must be, this is where it was headed. Plus there’s a crater here. I’m surprised how small it is; I learned in science a couple years ago that the smallest of particles can make a huge dent, if they make it through the atmosphere that is.”
“You are such a textbook.” Melissa said, playfully punching her brother in the arm. “So do you want the star?”
“No, keep it. It makes a good hairclip,” William said, placing the star in her hair just above her left ear. It stayed, even without a clip.
“This thing is cool.” Melissa said.
Days passed and they thought nothing of the star. Melissa wore it in her hair.
Then, exactly ten days afterward, the star changed. It turned into a small star-like living thing, sort of a floating star with eyes and a mouth.
“Hi!” The star said when Melissa and William were out again looking at the stars. They had been talking about how the universe was made.
“Whoa!” Melissa exclaimed.
“Hi!” The star said again.
“William, the star is talking!”
“Of course I am! I’m a fallen star. Some people call it a wish, a fallen wish, or a shooting star. Luckily I didn’t burn up!”
“So are shooting stars really just wishes that burn up?”
“Yeah! Well, some of them enter the atmosphere without the light show. Anyway, I’m down here to go meet my wisher!”
“Wisher?”
“The person who wished on me when I first appeared in the night sky.” The star said it as if it was common knowledge.
“Oh. Do you have a name?”
“All stars are named after what their wish is. My name is Safety. Somebody wished to be safe during school next year. They were wishing to be safe in seventh grade.”
“Wait I wished that. Are you my wish, Safety?”
“I might be! Let me touch your hand.”
Safety flew over to Melissa’s hand and Melissa raised her hand to touch him. An explosion of white late radiated out from the touch, which faded a short while later.
“You’re my wisher!”
“You’re my wish!”
Reply
