Blank Stars

chapter 13

I nearly jumped out of my skin as a familiar voice travelled to my ears, my world slowed down slightly as I bolted upright. My eyes began to water as I found myself face to face with my dad, he quickly wiped them. Even though I knew that this was a hallucination, and that my real dad was lying in a mortuary somewhere, I was still comforted by the sight of him. I cradled his hand in mine and smiled gently at him.

“Thanks, I hope that things go well.”

He smiled, the same smile that had always cheered me up no matter what troubles had been happening at the time.

“They will honey, they will.”

There was a moments silence before I spotted the bag I hadn’t opened yet, I looked at my dad and cursed to myself. I got up and walked over to the bag pulling it out from its corner and spread the contents out on the large smooth floor. I looked up at my dad and saw he had a wide eyed expression on his face. He walked silently over and let out a shaky breath as he lowered himself to the floor next to the array of paper and folders.

“Where did you get these?”

“They was all in your room, I brought them figuring they might help me.”

He looked at me, taken aback before a look of pride filled his eyes. I smiled back and then we returned to the mess that lay on the floor. There were maps, folders crammed full and paper. Notepads which were undoubtedly filled with invaluable information. I sorted the contents into bundles based on format; Loose pages, ring binders, notepads, folders etc. 

“Your mother would be so proud.”

I looked round and realised that I had forgotten that my dad had been there. The look in his eyes was so pained, I felt it echoed in mine. Not able to think of an appropriate response I smiled weakly and returned to my work. Through the whole process my dad never once helped me, he wasn’t real though so of course he couldn’t help. 

Once everything was organised appropriately I turned back to him.

“So care to explain anything to me?”

He sighed and searched his mind for the right words.

“Well, if I tell you too much too soon, it might put you in danger not to mention things becoming even more confusing.”

“Well, just give me the basis of your research”

“OK, well, obviously you know that nowadays stars don’t exist. Well there’s theories that they once did.”

Images flashed past my eyes of dreams and fairy tales, story books which had captivated my childhood.

“Not just in fairy tales obviously, but the government say that research done millennia ago by some civilisation showed that the stars were moving further and further away, and that they’re just too far away for us to see now.”

I nodded processing all this data, it all sounded so farfetched, but I couldn’t shake my faith in his words.

“And what’s wrong with that conclusion?”

I knew that it couldn’t be as simple as that, otherwise my parents wouldn’t have been killed for it.

“Well stars, according to all the data we’ve been able to collect, were actually balls of burning gas. In fact the sun is said to be one.”

“Uh-huh, but that still doesn’t show what’s wrong with the conclusion the government gave.”

“Well, they are suggesting that the stars have ‘floated’ away in theory, but if our sun is also a star then that can’t be true. I mean we still have the sun and it hasn’t got further away over time, form what we can tell at least.”