Stars & Memories

Star light, star bright,

First star I see tonight,

I wish I may, I wish I might

Have the wish I wish tonight.

A lullaby ; one that Hani recalls humming to herself as a young child the night estras would descend from the dark sky. 

From her memories she would remember herself gazing out of her window, head resting upon her arms which lay against the windowsill. There, she would watch and wait for the first estra to illuminate the night.

Beautiful. 

That was the thought that crossed her mind when she first witnessed this scene alongside her mother. 

She told her of their apparent origin, of the galaxy beyond and the many worlds they could visit. She told her of the stories of estras and the adventures they partook. 

“The night would be dark without estras,” her mother would say. “Sometimes, when I look at them like this, I would think… ‘Wow, is this how it feels to witness a beacon of hope within the darkness?’” 

Hani didn’t understand what her mother meant at first. Perhaps, her lack of understanding was due to her age. She was young, unfamiliar with the ‘darkness’ which her mother spoke of. 

Sometimes, Hani would find herself gazing up at the night sky. Humming, hoping to see the estras’ return. A part deep inside of her wishes to witness a shooting star alongside their descend, just as she once had.

The first time she witnessed one… She supposes that was the first time she truly understood what her mother meant about the estras resembling a beacon of hope.

That night was dark. The darkest in her life. She remembers failing an audition that day and told that she would never make it as a singer. It broke her ; shattered the dreams she had worked so hard to achieve. 

Then, there were her friends. They weren’t terrible, no. In fact, they had comforted her, given her words of encouragement. They tried their best, but it didn’t help, not when they had passed their auditions and she was the only one that didn’t. 

It pained her.

She recalled how swollen her eyes were by the time she got home from the crying. She was quiet that day, and Hani was far from being a quiet person. It concerned her mother seeing her daughter so upset, but even her presence brought little comfort.

Hani recalled holing herself up in her room for the remainder of the day, doing nothing but moping about. She recalled propping herself up just to gaze out the window, as she always did whenever something upset her. That was when she saw it, a shooting star, descending alongside the estras.

Right, it was the night when estras returned… Hani had forgotten that was the day they would.

The shooting star was bright. Brighter than any of the estras she had been before. It illuminated the night sky beautifully. 

Mother said that if one made a wish upon a star, then their wish will come true. Hani won’t say she believed in things like this, but that night… She made a wish. A wish that all her dreams would someday come true, to prove those who rejected her wrong.

Right… She recalled that night vividly.

A chuckle escapes her then. How sentimental… It’s not often that she would fall into such a mood. She supposes she knows why. After all, the only correlation she could find between her memories and now would be the shooting star.

When she thinks about it… Had she not had that glimmer of hope, she wouldn’t have made it to where she is now.

Hani wouldn’t say that a shooting star granted her wish, but it certainly gave her hope and encouragement.