The Boy Who Sang About the Stars

Prolouge

The night air was still as I stared at my bedroom wall willing sleep to come. I glanced over at the alarm clock and groaned, it had been three hours since I had first rested my head upon the pillow and since then I hadn't had a wink of sleep. A passing cars headlights shone through the blinds slightly illuminated my room, casting ghastly shadows upon the wall. I shuddered and leaned over switching the on the lamp that sat upon my bedside table. Once again insomnia had taken me captive making tonight one of many sleepless nights.

Sighing I unraveled myself from the cocoon of blankets that had molded around my body and stood up stretching my back. I shuffled across the room to the door where my favorite hoodie hung in a tangled mess. Grabbing it I made my way out the bedroom door and put it on as I trudged down the dark stairs, walking down them in the dark probably wasn't the best of ideas but I was so exasperated I didn't even care. At the bottom I turned the corner and picked up my worn pair of Onisuka Tigers slipping them onto each foot. On nights like these sometimes a walk in the cool air outside could clear my mind and allow me to sleep once I got back to the house.

Zipping my hoodie up I opened the front door and braved the brisk breeze that whipped through my hair. Locking the door behind me I crossed my front lawn and began walking down the neighborhood sidewalk. I stared at the ground as I walked kicking small acorns and pebbles that crossed my path and watched them skid forward. Bringing my foot back I connected it with the next victim and watched as it sailed through the air and hit a nearby car. Instantly the car began emitting a what I could only describe as a machined whine. I rushed towards the car and inspected the side for damage. There wasn't any real harm done only a small nick in the passenger side door, but thats when I realized the car wasn't making the whine i was hearing.

As soon as the noise had started it stopped, I turned around to inspect the area and came face to face with a large blue box. Leaning my head back I saw the words "Police Box" illuminated on the top of the structure. I wasn't exactly sure what a police box was supposed to be, but the words "public call" also inscribed on the sign led me to believe it was some sort of phone booth. But what would a phone booth be doing in the middle of my neighbors yard, not to mention I could have sworn it hadn't been there a few seconds ago. I brought my hand forward to touch the wood when the door opened up and a figure dressed in a brown tweed jacket and cherry red bowtie stepped out.

"Ah Adam, there you are!" The figure exclaimed pointing a finger at me.

"W-who are you?" I asked squinting my eyes trying to get a better look at him in the dim moonlight. "How do you know my name?"

The man smirked.

"I'm the Doctor, and why you're a world famous singer!" he bowed his head slightly and brought his hand up to his neck adjusting his bow tie "Really Adam, if you're going to tag along you need to stop asking such silly questions"

"Tag along?" I glared at him. What kind of name was the Doctor? I squeezed my eyes shut, this all had to be some crazy dream, there was no way a man with a British accent could have just materialized with a box out of thin air in the middle of Minnesota, but when I opened my eyes he was still there.

"I hear you sing about the stars, you sing about them a lot"

"Yeah? What about it?" I inquired. I began scanning the area around us, perhaps this was some celebrity hidden camera show and this was all some kind of prank, but after looking at every tree and bush I found nothing.

"Well how would you fancy a trip into outer space?" the Doctor asked. I stopped inspecting the area and looked back at him.

"How?"

The Doctor smirked and held up his hand, he snapped his fingers and from the box I heard the sound of a door creaking open. I looked over towards the box and was met with a warm golden light emitting from inside.

Travel to space? In this thing? Sure I had always been more of a dreamer than a realitist, but there wasn't any way this so called "Doctor" could take me to space in a phone box. Curiosity took hold and I found my feet slowly moving forwards and into the box. I soon found myself inside and let out a slight gasp of surprise. I had been expecting to find a tiny room with a phone, but the scene around me was far from my expectation. The room was enormous with nearly every surface covered in a bronze like metal. From where I stood a small flight of steps led up to a glass floored platform that held up a cylindrical structure. I bounded up the stairs to get a closer look at the column in the center, it was covered in switches and knobs of every sort.

"What do you think?" the Doctor asked behind me. I turned around to see him close the doors and make his way up the stairs"

"It's, it's..." I struggled to find the right words to describe the scene before me "really big?"

"I get that quite a lot, not in those exact words, but the same general reaction" the Doctor said. I watched as he navigated himself around the column in the center and began pulling on levers and pushing buttons in a flurry of motions. "It's called a TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Basically speaking, its a a ship that travels through time." he pulled down on a lever and spun around to face me "If I recall correctly you do like space ships don't you?"

I silently nodded trailing my hand across the banister surrounding the platform. I looked back up at the Doctor and saw him smile and make his way over to the TARDIS doors and fling them open.

"Come over here Adam, theres something I want you to see"

I slowly made walked down the stairs and stood next to the Doctor, he had his eyes trained on something outside and I followed his gaze and was met with a great black abyss dotted with a million pricks of light.

"It's beautiful" I whispered barely loud enough to be heard by my own ears. All of my life I had dreamed of seeing the stars up close and personal. Countless nights had been spent staring out my window up at the night sky imagining how it would feel to be close enough to the stars to reach out and hold them in my hands.

From a distance I thought I had heard a small note of music but disregarded the thought. Unless the Doctor had music playing somewhere within the TARDIS there was no way he could have heard anything. The note came again, only this time louder, and it appeared to be coming from the stars themselves. I closed my eyes and listened and thousands of small notes collided and formed into one melody.

"Now try putting that into a song" the Doctor stated. I opened my eyes and looked at him.

"What are you trying to say?"

"For millions of years people have tried doing it, no one has even been able to come close. Youre quite a gifted musician, I bet you could do it. Capture the song of the stars"

I shrugged and looked back out at the glowing orbs of light and listened again to the song they seemed to emit. Capturing something of this magnitude in a song would be nearly impossible, perhaps the Doctor was more of a dreamer than I was.

I reached my hand out into the empty space and brought it back only to find it covered in a shimmering grey dust. I brought my hand closer to my face and turned it over looking over the substance.

"That," the Doctor started "is pulverized meteorite. Over time they begin to collide with one another and form a powdered substance." he grabbed my wrist and blew on the dust scattering it into the air and smiled "But most people like to call it stardust"

A couple specks of the stardust found their way into my nose causing me to sneeze scattering the dust even more.

"Honestly Adam, I know you're a little on the quiet side, but you have to have something to say."

After wiping my eyes to clear the dust out of them I looked back out at the stars. Everything I was seeing was all too incredible to be real, it had to be a dream. This was all some figment of my imagination, maybe I was really laying in a bed back in Minnesota snoozing away.

"I'm hallucinating aren't I? I took too many sleeping pills by accident and I'm making this all up"

The Doctor leaned his head back and laughed, he closed the doors and leapt up the stairs and over to what I assumed what some sort of console. After fiddling with a few of the instruments he looked back at me and smirked.

"So, Adam Young, the boy who sings about the stars. Did I mention this is a time machine as well? Where would you like to go first, one rule: it has to be amazing"