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Watching the transition from day to night, seeing the sun dipping below the horizon and fading behind the mountain tops. The scattered clouds stretching and twisting across the sky, drenched in the orange and yellow hue of the sun's dying light. Sparkling, shimmering lights, spread across the sky, faint, but no-less beautiful. The scene playing out before me is like a painting brought to life. A dream that I’ve waited to see by her side.
She taught me all I needed to know about the world, everything that was necessary, and sometimes, more. She always talked about the different meals and treats she wanted to try. The sights she wanted to see. The people she wanted to meet. She wanted nothing more than to see the world and to experience it for herself, but that dream was taken away from her.
“What are they, Maria?”
“We call them stars. They’re like the sun, but really far away.”
“They’re really pretty.”
“Yes, they are, Shadow. Sometimes, certain ones will line up in such a way, you can see pictures and shapes with them. Like, you see that trail of stars leading to that little bucket shape?”
“Mhmm.”
“That’s called the Big Dipper. I like to just call it a soup ladle, but grandpa kind of gave me a weird look when I said that. Heheh”
“I don’t get it.”
“I’ll explain that another time.”
“Okay.”
...
“I always wondered what they would look like from down there.”
“From the planet?”
“Yeah. I just want to see what it’d all look like from the planet’s surface. Even if it was just for a second.. I’d just like to see how pretty they look from down there.”
“The Professor said that you’d be able to go once you were better. Maybe then you’ll be able to see them from down there.”
“..Maybe… One day.”
‘One day.’ Those words repeat in my head, again and again. A reminder of what she missed. A reminder of a promise I couldn’t keep.
If you were here, Maria. I wish you could’ve seen what I see… See that it’s more than what we could’ve ever imagined.
I wish your ‘one day,’ could’ve been today.