“Look up at the sky, Tammy.”
“What do you see tonight?”
“Well, it is a beautiful starry night. Lots and lots of stars, that’s what I see.”
“Do you know what stars are made out of?”
“What kind of answer do you want me to give you? Because there is the straightforward, scientific answer… or there is the fictional answer that makes more sense to me.”
“Well, Tammy, I want you to give me the version that makes the most sense to you. Because, you know, we can just leave the real explanation for the textbooks.”
“Yeah, well in class we are told that the stars are suns bigger than our sun that emanate light from great distances and that their light takes many years to reach where we are. Like when we look up at the sky tonight, we are pretty much looking back into time…
…But for me, the stars make more sense to me when I see them as holes. Holes that are spread out all over this big curtain in the sky at night when everything else is dark.”
“Wow, that reminds me of my old curtain, how there are holes in it and the sunlight sometimes still makes its way into the room through those holes.”
“Uh huh. It makes me crazy curious every time the stars are out. Because if I can reach out to those bright lights in the sky I’d stick my eye through one of the peepholes and see what is on the other side.”
“What do you think you’ll see?”
“I think I’ll see heaven on the other side!”
“Heaven? What do you mean by that?”
“It’s gotta be heaven right? Because during the day I am just reminded about how bad this world is: both on the large scale and on the small scale. On the large scale, leaders lead nations of innocent people into war with each other over historic hatred and a fear of having to get along with each other’s differences. On the small scale, there is a lot of simple injustices we see around us everyday: people being dishonest to each other, people being motivated by selfish greed and being extremely prideful over their puny, petty achievements.”
“So what's with these stars?”
“Well, I am reminded of all of this craziness during the day time, when all of the bad stuff is easily seen under the bright sunlight. However at night, I’d like to think that evil takes its time to rest; and we humans get to have some kind of consolation with these stars.”
“The stars remind me of the hope on the other side. That I can currently just stand up on my tippy toes and peek through the holes. After knowing how good it looks on the other side, I would wait patiently for that better day to come.”
“That sounds kinda stupid, Tammy. You’ll be wasting a lot of your time waiting for nothing to happen.”
“I know, but it is the fiction of it that makes it matter to me so much. You get it? A girl can dream big right? A girl can dream that one day she will be able to live in a world down here that looks just as beautiful and just as perfect as what is up there through those peepholes.”
“What world is that gonna be?”
“Uh, well I think it’s a world that treats you like an equal?”
“Exactly! Heaven does not have to be all about eternal life, or producing an endless supply of things we want. Heaven to me is to feel loved and respected for who I am and it does not matter how I look, how I act and/or how I think.”
“That’s pretty revolutionary you know?”
“Yeah. And do you know what's the best thing about holes?”
“That if you keep working hard at these holes, poking them and widening them, you are gonna be able to break through!”
“Wow, like you’re trying to clear out the ceiling!?”
“Exactly! You’ll feel the sky start crumbling and all this goodness that you dream of on the other side will become reality! You just gotta work hard on it to widen those holes!”
“The heavens will what? Pour down on us?”
“Yeah! You bet it would!”
Both stood there and paused for a while.
“Yeah, that's a little spit from the sky… it’s starting to rain!”
“Tammy, I want you to stop and just look up. Don’t say anything anymore, just look… up.”
Thunder claps in the distance. The gentle drizzle persists.
“Tammy, just hold on to that thought. Thank you, thank you so much. I know we’ll see better days. It’s like this rain is a promise from the stars.”
“And what about the stars, where will they go?”
“I wouldn't have a clue, but one thing I am sure, is that while our promises change with time, what motivates us every now and then will always shine equally as brightly.”
Tammy begins to twirl and dance.
“I’m going back on the car. I guess I’ll see you soon yeah?”
“So how long are you gonna dance in this rain for?”
“…Just give me another five minutes!”
