It was a night like any other, I suppose. My friend, Annabelle and I were walking about the living room, in search of entertainment- without much luck.
As we paced about for what must have been the fifth time, Bella got the strangest hankering to walk onto the balcony... Interesting?
I walked across the tiled floor to be greeted by warm Summer air that served as assurance that Summer had not reached its peak, but soon would. This air seemed to satisfy Bella's hankering, but what I saw was another sort of satisfying: the stars.
I would often lay on my little trampoline and gaze at our sickly looking stars, wishing that the world would turn its lights off for a moment. I have always loved the stars. They seemed to be a beacon of just how vast the universe was, and yet they appeared that you could touch them if only you could bounce high enough. That in the middle of a spiral galaxy could be a black hole; a nation encircling its greatest demise. We lived in that nation. The stars are a testimony to how little we actually know, despite our unwillingness to be seen as anything but the "most evolved species".
The stars give me an intellectual satisfaction and peace, knowing that everything is all but discovered.
The stars were unusually bright that night.
Instinctively, I grabbed a very confused Annabelle's hand and ran to the tranpoline.
"What are you doing?" She asked hastily.
"You'll see." I vaguely stated, not wanting to slow down to do anything.
We hopped onto the trampoline and immediately Bella knew exactly what was going on.
"Look how bright they are..." I breathed.
"You know, in Franschhoek we can see the Milkyway very vividly," Bella began, "I miss our stars tonight."
"They might not be much, but our stars sure are beautiful." I smiled as I spoke.
"They are," Bella trailed off, " what is that?"
Bella pointed to a moving speck.
"It's a UFO."
"Yeah. I bet a bunch of aliens are going to pop out any moment to devour our brains..." Bella snipped sarcastically.
"Well, even if it isn't an alien spacecraft, it is clearly a flying object that we cannot identify."
We burst out laughing.
Suddenly, the speck slowed down, came to a stand still and disappeared.
This continued about seven times.
They all seemed to be headed to the same spot from all different directions. Unfortunately, that spot was right above our heads.
YOU ARE READING
Interstellar Gathering
Science FictionIt was a night as any other but the stars were shining exceptionally brightly. Two teenage girls were sitting outside, stargazing, when suddenly something happens. Could a split second of light change their perception of the world, and their lives...
