by Kevin J. Doyle –
Stevie moved another small piece of firewood and looked behind it, but still he found nothing fun. No talking bugs, friendly animals or dancing sticks. He’d been searching hard but hadn’t yet found anything cool to play with in the woodpile behind his Papa’s workshop. The steadily dimming daylight told him it was getting late. His grandma and papa would soon want him to head inside to take a bath and go to bed. Yuck.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light behind some trees about ten or twelve feet away. Then it went out. It flashed on and off again three more times. Stevie could see a few lightning bugs around him, but their shine was nowhere near as bright as the one he saw in the trees. The light flashed again in the same spot! Each time it was the same bright, warm, white glow lasting for a few seconds before disappearing.
“Hello? Is someone there?” Stevie said.
No reply came back. The light didn’t flash again either so maybe it had heard him, whatever it was. He was going to have to investigate. Stevie took a few steps toward the spot where he’d seen the bright glow and then he went back to the woodpile to pick up a small stick. Just in case. After he grabbed a piece of wood, the strangely beautiful light come back on! Without thinking any more about it, he walked quickly toward the clump of trees and looked around them to find the source of the flash. When he saw what was back there, Stevie’s eyes were like two freshly popped popcorn kernels and his mouth flopped open big enough to chug a whole soda pop in one gulp.
A star sat right there on the ground, leaning its back against a tree, like it was the most normal thing around. A real, live star….from the sky! It had five points–one was obviously the head, two were its arms, and two were its feet. The star was roughly the same height as Stevie, and it had two round blue eyes, a small black circle for a nose, and a thin red curved line for a mouth. The star looked exactly like every star doodle he had ever drawn. In fact, it looked like every star doodle he’d ever seen ANYONE draw.
Stevie thought about the star facts he’d learned in school. He knew stars were made of gas. And he knew they were usually hanging way up in the sky about 25 trillion miles away from Earth. However, he did not know what in the world this one was doing sitting in the grass in the woods out behind his Papa’s shop! Stevie figured there was just one thing to do.
“Hi. I’m Stevie.”
The star jumped a bit in surprise and lit up again with a lovely soft, white glow.
Then it answered rather snappily. “Oh, well hello to you right back. I thought you must have wandered off. I suppose you’ll be asking for something now. Go on then, wish away.”
Stevie walked around the trees and stood in front of the star. He knew staring was rude but who could stop fixing his eyes on such an incredible sight?
“Stare much?! Come on, hurry up. I can’t very well consider your wish if you don’t wish it!” the star said.
“Does that mean you….are you the wishing star?” Stevie asked.
“The one and only,” the star replied with a nicer voice. “’First star I see tonight’ and the whole bit. Well, I am for now anyways. In about a billion years, I’ll fade out and someone else will get the job.”
“So what are you doing down here behind my papa’s shop?”
The star explained that it had dropped to Earth in order to actually watch someone make a wish. It had always wanted to see, up close, the pure joy in this one lady’s face as she made her nightly wish. The wish she’d made every night for years. Unfortunately, the star hadn’t known the temperature on the ground would be so warm. Even though most stars are burning white hot, they can only thrive in the beyond-super-cold-freezing temperatures in space. But down here, it was much too warm for it to keep its glow on long enough to fly back where it belonged. Stevie just knew that if it couldn’t return home, then for the next billion years no one would be able to say:
Star light star bright,
The first star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.
A billion years is a looooooong time to go without wishes!
“This lady you wanted to watch make her wish, it was my Grandma wasn’t it?” Stevie asked. “She’s stepped outside every single night of her whole life, always watching for the wishing st….uhhh for YOU I guess. And she’s always wished that all her loved ones would be safe and sound, wherever they may be.”
“Yes, I suppose that is her,” the star said. “Everyone up there talks about her. She’s probably the nicest human we’ve ever observed. Oh my goodness, I can’t be the one who ruins it for her! You have to get me back up to space as quickly as possible.”
“ME?! What can I do?” Stevie said. “Don’t we need a rocket ship or flying saucer or something?”
“No, no,” the star said. “We simply need a wish! You can wish me back to space.”
“Can I wish on you?” Stevie asked.
“Unfortunately, no,” the star said. “According to wishing star rules, I have to be in my place in the sky to make your wishes come true.”
They both looked around for something else on which Stevie could wish. Stevie ran over to a clover patch and studied each stem, but none of them had four leaves. Then he thought about the time one of the girls in his class told him he could wish on a white dandelion before blowing all the seeds off. None of those were around either. Suddenly, Stevie remembered his grandma had some birthday candles in her kitchen.
“Hey, does it have to be your actual birthday for a wish on a birthday candle to work? And does the candle have to be in a piece of cake?” Stevie asked.
“I don’t really know,” the star said. “Candle wishes follow a different set of rules than than star wishes. But it’s worth a try! The one thing I do know is if the wisher really believes the wish in their heart, it always comes true.”
Stevie started to run inside his grandma and papa’s house when he heard his name being called.
“Stevie! Come on in sweetie-pickles!” his grandma said.
Stevie’s mouth twisted into a shy frown as the star tried not to laugh at his nickname.
“Oh, no,” Stevie whispered. “It’s my Grandma! She’s out already!”
Stevie knew he’d have to distract her in order to have more time to find something to wish on and send the star back to space.
“Okay, in a few minutes, Grandma! I’m uhhhhh… playing with the wishing star!” It was the truth, and she would never suspect the star was actually in the woods with him.
“What are you doing?” the star whispered. “Won’t she come find us?”
Stevie told the star not to worry because his grandma would think he was only playing pretend. Sure enough, she stayed up on the porch, gazing at the night sky. Though now, Stevie realized that with her there, he would not be able to sneak into the kitchen to grab the birthday candles. And she was clearly looking for the wishing star right now, so he had to hurry. He did not want to be responsible for his grandma’s first wishless night.
Stevie rushed over to the clover patch to give it one more look. However, before reaching the clovers, he tripped on a tree root and fell face down in the dirt. And to his surprise, right in front of his eyes was a shiny penny! Stevie couldn’t believe his luck. But wait, what if luck isn’t the same as wishes? Could he wish on a found penny? What are those rules?
Then, Stevie remembered the star’s words. His wish would come true if he truly believed it in his heart. So he grabbed the penny and ran over to the star.
“I’m going to send you back to space by wishing on this found penny.” Stevie said.
But then he paused, realizing he had so many questions for his new friend and they never even had time to play. However, he knew he couldn’t let everyone – especially his Grandma – down, because the world needs to believe in wishes.
Stevie stared at his toes and shuffled his feet. “Gosh Mr. Star, I’m so happy to have met you. I wish you could come back to play with me someday but I know we have to return you to space now.”
Immediately, he fell on his bottom with his eyes as round as coffee mugs and his mouth hanging open like a drawbridge over a castle moat. Stevie couldn’t believe what he’d just accidentally said. Instead of wishing the star up to space, he’d wished it to play with him! Now it would be stuck here forever and there would be no more wishes for anyone for a billion years! Yet the wishing star simply looked back at him with a kind, friendly grin.
“Thank you, Stevie,” the star said. “I’ll definitely visit you again soon!”
After those words, the star began to glow again. This time it was much whiter and brighter than ever before, and its light never faded out. Next, the star started to spin, slowly at first but then faster and faster before finally rising off the ground and shooting off into the night sky. Behind it trailed the most glorious glowing star tail anyone had ever seen.
Stevie realized he’d wished for the star to come BACK and play with him SOMEDAY. This is what he truly wanted. And like the star had said, since Stevie believed the wish in his heart, it had been granted. For if the star was going to come back and play, it had to return home to space first! Not only had he successfully sent it home so everyone around the world could still wish on it every night, he’d made sure it could come back to see him someday. Stevie happily jumped up from the dirt, ran around his papa’s shop, and sprinted all the way to the porch until he was in his grandma’s arms.
“Sweetie-pickles, did you see the amazing shooting star?” she said. “Why, it looked as if it were going up instead of down and I’ll be a kangaroo’s kitten if it didn’t shoot right over our house!”
“I sure did, Grandma!” Stevie said. She always said the funniest things.
“And did you wish on it like I taught you?” she asked.
“Of course!” Stevie said.
And then, arm in arm, they walked inside as the darkness above them lit up with star after star. But none of them glowed quite as bright as the wishing star Stevie had saved that night.
the end.
Question Time
1. What did Stevie find behind his papa’s shop?
2. Why was the star on Earth?
3. What was the only way the star could get back to space?
4. What did Stevie wish on?
5. What was good about his wish?
