an embrace made of stars

He asked me what I missed, most of all.

I was almost asleep so he had to repeat the question.

I told him truthfully that I didn’t know, the thought lost to dreams within a matter of minutes.

He asked me again the next night when I was more awake so I considered it for a while and I couldn’t think of anything and I told him so.

I thought that would be the end of it, but he asked again and again, every evening in that pre-sleep quiet, letting it become part of our nightly routine. But while I could have listed a litany of things I missed, none seemed worthy of that most-missed title.

And one night I knew, surprised that I hadn’t thought of it before.

“I miss the stars,” I told him, looking up at the empty darkness above.

He only nodded, in agreement or approval or some combination of the two, and held my hand while we fell asleep like he always does.

I woke to find myself enveloped in an early-morning night sky, stars hand-drawn on bare ground and walls, each one bright and warm and glowing.

 

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

Categories: flax-golden

2 Comments

Anne Meuchel · October 8, 2011 at 1:06 am

This is beautiful! I want to read a book about these characters. I just discovered your novel, and your writing pulled me in like a melody.

I used to take part in a creative writing group, and I love this idea of flash fiction inspired by photographs. Yours are creative, edgy, real. Makes me want to write! Thanks!

Robin · November 22, 2011 at 6:33 pm

This is my favorite. I want to ask questions about it, but don’t want to ruin its beauty-via-ambiguity.

I’m an English teacher reading Night Circus in a book club. I love it. Like the commentor above, these inspire me to write (again).

Next November I’m doing NaNoWriMo.

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