#venis

They’ve got a disintegrator up there or my name isn’t Eskiballo!

You want a story from a world beyond your own, huh? Isn’t a book precisely that already?

Alright, alright, just joking, dear. Let me think… Ah. I think I have one that you will like.

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There is a world not far from here, hidden behind a star whose light you see each night. It is a world quite similar to yours, with laws and creatures that you might even imagine. It has one sun that heats up its air and soil, one core to keep it warm inside. Clouds fly around its atmosphere, created from deep seas, and oceans are barriers between the land, creating climates, habitats, diversity. There are civilisations there – not one, but two of them, quite different ones. Of course, that means there’s wars, conflicts, peace and commerce, a wheel that turns in never-ending cycles. Their differences from us could be considered significant by some bored sociologist, just like the tiny variations within the soil would brighten up the life of a geologist. Oh, I could tell them so much about their beloved numbers, charts, and elements…

However, literature is unbothered by the intricacies behind the magic of a world, and thus I’ll remain silent.

On that remote planet, in a small village that has no name attached to it, there was a kid that lived with their two parents. I don’t remember who they were, nor what they did – it doesn’t matter now. Their looks, their hobbies and their dreams are also quite irrelevant. What I will tell you is that, each night, that kid left his small, cosy bedroom to feel the fresh nocturnal winds, sitting on the small grass field next to his house for what seemed to be hours. They liked to look up, at the sky, and see the stars. They liked observing their slow movement. They even learned all those imagined names that each civilisation has for every nightly spark. Within the silence of the sleeping hours, they liked to quietly create their own realms between the constellations, guessing who could be hiding behind the brightness of their suns, invisible to the naked eye. And every night, every time they let their mind aim for the stars, they smiled at them.

“Why would you smile towards the sky?”

That question was asked to the small kid various times, by creatures old and young. To that, they only smiled again, shrugging their shoulders with their child-like innocence.

“Because that way, I’m sure that someone else, somewhere far away, is smiling back at me.”

Years passed. From peace to turmoil, the story of that world took a turn similar to many others. Where stagnancy brought some prosperity, now conflict was arising, and loud, strong sounds kept many souls at night awake, afraid to close their eyes. There was no more loneliness left for the kid that watched the stars. There was no peace, either. However, they still kept leaving their small, cold room each night to stay on the grass field, this time avoiding the strong whispers that filled their vigilant house. Their gaze was lowered from the sky now, where a thick layer of dark smoke covered up all stars. Their legs, close to their chest, hid their face from the sharp wind, that brought small pieces of ash caused by the nearest fire. Their ears could hear their mother calling them inside, yet they didn’t want to go. Their mind, now trapped on earth, forgot how to fly high, imagination caged in dark perspectives.

A presence made the kid finally raise their small head from their knees, for a stranger was passing next to their house that night. Their long, straight legs bended abnormally as they sat down in front of the quiet kid, their warm gaze meeting the dull colour of two small iris’.

The stranger said nothing. Only smiled.

“What’s there to smile about…?” asked the kid, surprised by such reaction.

“Nothing,” replied the stranger. “I’m just returning you your smile.”

On that note, the stranger left, their golden, shiny eyes reminding the child of their moon, so beautiful when it was visible on their dark sky. Watching them leave, the kid kept quiet for some time… standing up afterwards, and going back into their house.

Years passed, as they usually do. Where conflict was, peace came to be again. The scars left by anger and sorrow were getting healed by mutual support, and trees were getting planted there, where fire reigned some time ago. The kid grew up, and had their kids. They lived in a small house away from the big city, where the big lanterns never brightened up the darkness of the night. They worked, they laughed, they loved. Yet every night, they left the cosiness of their shared bedroom to go onto the grass field near their house, letting the wind caress their skin with its refreshing breeze. They sat down on the soil, their head raised up towards the sky. And once again, they let their vast imagination fly between the stars that shined above, bringing lost stories closer to their land, guessing who hid within the brightness from their naked eye.