Counting the Stars

Chapter 16 - The Darkest Night

"Let's hope this heat gets better soon. It's already bad enough during the day. I mean, like, oh my gosh."

"Hey, you remember that museum that's being worked on, right? I wonder if that's open yet."

The fire crackled and popped in front of me as I sat on the log amongst the lighthearted conversations around me that I hadn't been included in. Warmth from the flames consuming the charred branches at my feet pulsed through the night air, eyes carefully following the flaming sparks that leapt from it. The bursts were mesmerizing, focus guided by the movement as my thoughts wandered to and through what had happened earlier today.

"How did you get inside?" Tom asked me drowsily, still firmly rubbing his eyes.

Surely it was about midnight by now, maybe even past it. It was one of those uncommon days where I walked home at the end of the workday without a trace of tiredness creeping through my eyes, and today it was because of the heavy thoughts sitting in my mind and curdling in my stomach. The chattering of gathering animals at and near the fire wouldn't have been an easy situation to sleep in, anyway, and so I resorted to sitting by the fire as well to gather my thoughts.

"I must have forgotten to lock it last night when I went to sleep," Tom muttered thoughtfully, still examining the lock. "I thought I'd locked it, but it must have slipped my mind."

Conversation pried through the quietness of the night as I absentmindedly sat within it. A soft breeze ran through the area, playing with the flames as they crept to one side under its influence. Starlight glistened in the pitch black sky and I snuck a glance here and there away from the fire to look, watching out for a shooting star in the clarity of the sky, but all that shone back at me was the light that would shine forevermore. It was gorgeous to see.

"Are you sleeping here at night?" I asked.

The memories spun tirelessly through my mind. Just this morning, I'd been hurled into an entirely new form of my life by a sickening discovery that still reigned in my recollection. I could never have realized the blessings I had received, disregarding my strengths and my downfalls, until I saw eye-to-eye with a struggle far more harsh. If somehow, the universe permitted my witnessing of such a struggle, then it was in my paws to help find a solution. But with a situation so severe, a plan that would actually work wouldn't come easily.

"Yes, I am," Tom admitted after a reluctant pause. "I was hoping you wouldn't have to find out like this. Usually I do a better job at hiding it, but the twins were up for most of the night with teething pain and I must have been too tired to remember to lock up."

I had to do something. Any form of progress was a step in the right direction. It was just a question of what.

"Anyway, I'm off to bed," an animal at the outside of the cluster announced, sparking a wave of goodnights throughout the group. As their footsteps crunching over the stiff grass receded into the night, I decided that it was likely coming to that time when I should do the same. I just needed to do a bit more thinking to try and convince myself to be more confident about the whole dilemma.

The roots of the problem didn't take much effort to narrow down. Money was a bit of a tense idea within the shop right now. If Tom didn't have the money to support himself and his kids, then I most definitely wouldn't have. Even putting our money together wouldn't get us close to where we needed to be. To earn the money to get there, the shop first needed to gain popularity. We had to transform the almost untouched building into a bustling source of convenience. But how?

I toyed with the possibilities I could reach as I sat before the fire and the heat pulsing from it onto my ankles. Every time I arrived at some kind of resolution or potential step in progress, instantly a sea of questions followed. What I knew for sure was that promoting our presence was the right way to go. If that helped in some way to dig Tom out of the financial hole he had stumbled into, then I could only hope it would boost me forward into the future I pictured as well. To promote successfully, animals first had to care about why we deserved to be brought higher than where we stood.