See the Star

There is light inside you, let it shine through.

In the faraway galaxy of Amberia, there lived a little rock named Alexandra. She drifted into space not knowing who she was and it made her feel very sad.

            Ever since she could remember she only had her Lolo Sahar and Lola Orah by her side. Although she felt lonely at times, she was grateful to them for adopting her, for they discovered her when she was only a tiny speck of cosmic dust, drifting in the great universe along with other debris from a neighboring galaxy.

            Lolo Sahar, an old moon that had survived many big bangs in his lifetime, often brought Alexandra along when he orbited around his host planet. Although grandpa moon took great care of her, Alex as she was fondly called often felt empty inside. She would often go under his shadow, hiding her face from the sun.

             One night, he asked her to play with the other baby planets that were traveling with their parents.

            “Why don’t you play with them, Alex?” he encouraged his granddaughter. “You should enjoy playing with children your age,” Lolo Sahar said.

            “Grandpa, I would rather watch the constellations with you,” she said, feeling extremely shy. “I don’t think they will like me,” she sighed.

            “And why is that Alexandria?” Lolo Sahar asked, looking at her with kind eyes.

            “Because I spark sometimes,” she told her grandpa while hiding her face.

            “Oh, Alex, you spark because you have a gift. Not everyone is like you and that makes you special,” he said, hugging her.

            “But I want to be like them,” she said, pointing to the other baby planets that have now formed a circle.

            “Don’t be afraid Alex, go ahead and join them,” he said.

            With her Lolo’s prodding, Alex went out of his shadow to be with them. She also did not want to miss the gathering of the baby planets who once in a while went out of their parent’s protective magnetic fields in order to play. Seeing Alex was alone, they invited her to play.

            She was so excited that light suddenly came out from her.

            “Alexandra, why do you spark?” they asked as they played tag.  They felt afraid of her for they had vegetation and breathed in air while Alex’s skin was rough and broke out. Alex did not understand why fire would suddenly shoot out of her and it embarrassed her so much. It scared the other baby planets and they teased her to hide their fear of what they too could not understand.

            “Odd Alex, so unlike us,” they teased, “She has volcanoes instead of trees. We have life while you have fire. You are not like the rest of us,” they said.

            In tears, Alex flew away from them. Not wanting to disappoint her grandparents, she turned to the nearby asteroids instead in their wanderings for they neither spoke nor felt, just drifted into space, aimless and without dreams.

            She wondered often if she would remain a rock forever. But something inside her burned. It burned quietly that she felt its warmth on cold nights when everyone else was busy with their duties and she had nothing to do but to watch.

            One quiet evening, a light from a distant galaxy suddenly caught her eyes. It glowed a beautiful bright orange and it warmed her heart. She felt like the star knew her. Immediately, she felt a spark light up inside.

            It was as if the distant star was calling to her. She was mesmerized by her light, captivated by her beauty.  For a strange reason it reminded her of someone she had lost a long time ago.

            “Could it be her?” she thought. She was trying to remember when a massive asteroid suddenly blocked her view and she was gone.

            One day when most of the moons were resting, Alex approached her grandfather.

            “Lolo,” she called out to him, “How did I get here?” she asked.

            “Oh Alex, I have told you this story a million times,” replied a grumpy old moon who was roused from his sleep.

            “I know Grandpa but I want to hear it again,” Alex pleaded with eyes so sweet that no parent could refuse. And so Lolo Sahar began to tell her a story.

            “It was a hundred years ago when there was a big explosion in the galaxy not so far away from here and we were told that stars have died. As they exploded, they broke into a thousand pieces but most of their offsprings were swallowed by a black hole. But you my dear were very brave. You traveled a far off distance, refusing to be swallowed by the darkness, with great tenacity you broke out of gravity even though the pull of it was so strong,” he said.

            “You pushed yourself away with all your might. That was when we saw you, Lola Ohar and I, we were traveling close to your galaxy and saw you from afar,” he said gently.  

            “Your grandma gave all that she had to pull you towards us so that you would be safe. Since then, I took you under my gravity and we have been inseparable,” he said, smiling at her.

            “You are special Alexandra, you should remember that,” Lolo Sahar said as he hugged his little girl, sharing with her some of the light he had managed to save during the day.

            When evening came, Alex noticed that light was starting to come out of her again. She was a bit surprised at its intensity but it also made her very happy.

            Lola Ohar had told her before that the light from the dying stars continue to shine even after they are long gone. It reminded her of the light that she saw the day before. “It must be mama,” she thought, tears gathering in her eyes.

            “I will shine brightly for you mama,” Alex said with newfound resolve.   She felt that it was time to embrace her destiny and become who she was meant to be.

            The very next day, Alex talked to her grandparents about her plans.

“I would like to explore what is out there?” she told them. “Would it be okay if I returned to where I came from?”

            Lola Ohar turned her face towards her little one and spoke softly, “Of course my dear,” she said, nodding to her Grandpa who was listening quietly.
            “We always knew you were a star.”

             “I will miss you,” Alex whispered in her grandma’s ear.

            “We will miss you more,” Lola Ohar replied, kissing her burning cheeks.

            “You brought us joy in our old age but we want nothing else than to see you happy.”

            Alex hugged her grandparents tight when it came time to say goodbye. “I will always remember you,” she said.

            “Shine for us bright,” they replied, “You will be our source of light.”

            The passion from within her began to burn once more. “There is a fire inside me that won’t stop burning,” she said as she smiled from the inside.  

            She felt her heart get warmer and warmer and as Alex grew brighter each day, her grandparents brought her to the edge of Amberia and let her go to return to the place of her birth.

            “Welcome home,” the native stars said. “We thought you would never remember who you truly are.”

            Her waiting was now over, a thousand years had swiftly passed by, and finally she was where she was meant to be.  At last, she found where she truly belonged.

            “I am home,” she said as she fully opened her heart and allowed all her brightness to come out.

            Alexandra grew up to become a very beautiful sun. She often directed her light to the galaxy she had left behind.  “Does my happiness reach you?” she thought about her Lolo and Lola as she shone brightly for them.

            Whenever her grandparents saw her warm orange light, they absorbed it joyfully, sharing proudly about her to the nearby planets who were now fully grown.

            “That’s our Alex!” Lola Sahar and Lola Ohar beamed.

            Embarrassed at their previous teasing, her childhood friends started to sing a different tune, “Oh Alex, so different from the rest of us. We have trees, you have fire. Your light gives us life!”

             Their happiness reverberated across the universe and Alex would shine even brighter for them, forgetting the wounds of the past, sharing only her love to the place she once called home.

            It had been so long ago when Alexandra thought she was just a rock without a purpose, drifting in a great endless universe. Little did she know that one day the little rock would grow up to be a star.

***

© Marjorie Duterte, See the Star, Oct. 2012. For orphans everywhere and their loving guardians. Ad majorem Dei gloriam!