Second Place, Short Story Contest
Stars By Abbie
The "Look
girl in the
meadow
Hilton
called to the girl under the streetlight.
at the beautiful stars!"
The
under the
girl
faintest points of light.
"Do you
streetlight
"Yes,
I
looked up, but she saw only the
see them."
meadow.
see the constellations?" asked the girl in the
"Aren't they marvelous?"
The
under the streetlight squinted. "They don't make sense to
girl
me." She pulled out her
star
book and
more she looked,
the
more annoyed she
but the
book
to the ground.
tried to identify the constellations,
"They're too confusing!
felt.
How
At
can
she threw the
last I
make
sense of
something so vague and dim?"
A man walking
walking by heard the
"Here," he said confidently, "let
proceeded to name several points of
light,
and approached
her.
the constellations."
He
girl
me show you
explaining what the names
meant and what the people and animals they represented were supposed be doing. The
girl
gazed happily into the stars
Now
smiled.
and remember
However, as soon
sky.
their
she understood.
is
left,
to
and she
as she tried to relocate the
names, she became confused. "This
"What he
lous!" exclaimed the girl under the streetlight.
sense while he
The man
is
ridicu-
said only
makes
talking."
"Excuse me," said another man. "Are you trying
to
view the
heavenly bodies?" "Yes," muttered the girl under the streetlight.
"Let in the
nebula
tone.
The
me show of..."
you.
You
see, that star directly
she
want
to look stupid, so she
is
nodded solemnly. How-
man
said,
and when he
hopeless!" she cried.
"What
is
"I will
never see the
"They're too
a red dwarf
once more.
felt lost
"This
is
he continued speaking in long words in an important
girl didn't
ever, she didn't really understand anything that the left
above
hopeless?"
came
the voice of the girl in the
stars," said the girl
dim and vague and
scientific for
7
under the
me
meadow.
streetlight.
to understand."
