Stargazing

Carolyn, Jake, and I had been sharing our dreams almost as soon as we could speak. We would spend hours during the summer, our backs on a blanket in the backyard of our homes, watching the stars turn in the sky and whispering our dreams, our hopes, our prayers.  Mostly it was just the three of us and our dreams.

Carolyn's dreams of a storybook marriage were shattered by an abusive husband with a gun.  We lost track of Jake. And my dreams died silently inside my womb on a beautiful winter morning.  My despair annihilated what dreams I might have had left, turning my consciousness into a silent, dense bleakness.  I stopped dreaming, grateful for the oblivion of sleep.

I had come back to the summer house because I wanted to be alone with my grief.  I wanted to wrap myself in a shroud, suffocate my anger, and quietly fade into the background.

It was sheer bad luck that Jake was renovating his parent's house next door.  Once a shy boy who never said a word, Jake was now outspoken in his insistence that I rejoin the world. He invited himself over. He brought me dinners, and fussed until I ate.  When I finally hollered that he should leave me alone, Jake had grabbed a blanket from the couch and dragged me into the backyard, where we now lay.

"Do you ever dream anymore?"  Jake asked.

"No," I finally answered.  "I don't dream anymore."

Jake wasn't looking at me, he was looking up at the night sky.  He pointed at some distant constellation, and my eyes followed.

"Some of the stars up there died a long time ago. They're nothing but cold, dead rocks now.  But the light they once gave keeps shining, night after night. There's comfort in that, I think."

"So?"

"So, Lisa," Jake squeezed my hand, a lifeline in the darkness. "Maybe you should start dreaming again."

Photo courtesy of http://writeonedge.com/

I am trying some rearranging out for size, well, just because.  One of those things is making sure that I remember to link up with Write At the Merge. 

Vast, or How The Stars Came to Be

Very long ago, before The People walked the Earth, the Sun and the Moon ruled the skies.  The two faithfully stood guard, and their light kept the Dark emptiness of the Void from devouring the Earth.

The Sun was the Ruler of the Day; his benevolent rays extended in every direction around him.  All were warmed and heartened by his light, and the Darkness fled.

The Moon was much smaller than the Sun.  Her mild light was only strong enough to protect the Earth, not herself.  The Darkness often curled around the Moon hungrily; she felt very small and alone.

"I am very lonely," The Moon told the Sun one day as they passed.  The Sun loved the Moon very much, and he did not want her to be unhappy.  The Sun went to the Great Spirit.

"Please help the Moon," The Sun beseeched Him. "She is lonely, and I would do anything to see her happy once more."

The Great Spirit smiled at the selflessness of His Creation.  He broke off the rays of the sun, crushed them in his hands, and blew the fragments across the vast emptiness around the Earth.  The Void, and its darkness, retreated far away. Then the Great Spirit called the new fragments lighting the sky Stars, and he healed the Sun so his rays once more extended all around him.

When the Moon Rose the next evening, she was delighted to find the many millions of stars sparkling around her, and the Darkness gone.  She would never be lonely again, the Stars told her.  Now the Stars shine their laughter each night, and the Moon beams with happiness. 


***I was thinking about the prompt yesterday during our state's annual standardized torture testing, and this story sprang to mind.  I don't know if there are any Native American folktales about the Sun, Moon, and Stars, but if there are, any similarities to my story are completely accidental.  And I even had some pictures to upload, but Evernote is apparently "offline", so...no pictures.  Which is probably good--I am no artist!

Mamakat's Prompt:
2.) Write a blog post inspired by the word: Night.