Sammy Got a Star (Chapter 3)

Sammy played Pokemon for the rest of the day, training up the new collectible monster, though a feeling of falling behind came over him as he played. He was always a game or a system behind the other kids. Ever since his mom got sick and his dad had to start working more, he wasn’t able to keep up with everyone. Well, Sven wasn’t so caught up either. Sven read lots of books and didn’t play as many games as the other kids. He was also a kid who loved space which is why him and Sammy got on so well. Mark and Nick were good friends, but they didn’t share the connection that those two did.

His Pokemon fainted for the third time since he started, and he scoffed. “If I was a trainer in real life, my Pokemon would never faint. I’d beat Ash and be the champion of the world.”

He put the DS down and went outside. Two women had come in earlier and went up to his mom’s room. His mom was up there all the time. She used to come downstairs a lot more, but over the past month she never moved from up there. Sammy missed running around with her outside, going to the park on weeknights and having her show him where all the stars are in the Milky Way, even though they couldn’t see it too well. She knew where it all was. He wished she would get up, so he could take her to his star. “They could fix her up there. I know they could,” Sammy said under his breath as the women in their blue and purple shirts and pants walked up. He’d seen them numerous times, but he never knew their names. He only knew they were there to take care of his mom.

Sam tried reading his book when his dad came down. “Hey sport. What’s cooking?”

“Spaghetti?” he responded hopefully.

“Is that your wish, monsieur?” Dan looked down at the book. “Hey, I’ve seen that book. It’s an old one. What are you doing with it?”

“Sven got it.”

Dan sat down next to Sammy and leaned over to get a look at the book. He considered it for a few moments, taking in a bit of the information about the Egyptians and their technological fortitude which was brought to them by travelers from on high.

“It’s pretty hard to read,” Sammy said.

“I could imagine. This is the kind of stuff my dad read to me when I was your age, and I couldn’t get it at all.

Sammy considered this, but returned to the book, attempting to read it, picking up strings of words before losing his momentum, tired by trying to figure out the big words used based on the context. After a while, he put the book down and took his DS out again. His dad rubbed his head and gave him a kiss. He turned on the TV and switched to the local news.

“Hey dad?” Sammy asked, eyes still trained upon the dual screen, fingers fiddling with the joystick and the buttons.

“Yeah munchkin?” Dan responded, eyes focused upon the screen with the ambulances in transit from an accident on the interstate.

“How long do you think it would take to get to my star?”

“By car or by train?”

“By rocket – duh!”

“Oh.” His dad thought for a moment and stroked his chin with his fingers. “Well, your mom would know more about that. But, if the rocket is going less than the speed of light, it would probably take over a billion years.”

Sammy looked at his dad, eyes twinkling with inspiration. “I’ll do it. I’m going to get to my star and go where no one has gone before.”

His dad started making sounds that he would later come to realize as the opening crescendo for Star Trek. “I can’t wait. I’ll tell all my friends that my son was the first to make it to his star,” he said jocularly, though not enough to discourage the boy’s magnanimous imagination.

“I’ll be King of the star, and everyone will bow to me. Then I will get them to build rockets, so everyone can come and live on the planets around my star. We will go everywhere in the Milky Way, do everything there is to do. We’ll build the first McDonald’s in space!”

His dad was laughing, though he didn’t quite know why, but he laughed too. They sat for a while, but his dad stood when the two nurses came down an hour later. Sammy followed his dad as he let the two women out.

“Why do they always come?” Sammy asked, knowing that they were there to help his mom feel better. He’d been sick before, and sometimes it felt like there was a war between good and evil going on inside his body, but it always went away, and he could get out of bed and play outside with his friends. He figured that it would’ve been the same for his mom, but she just didn’t get out of bed.

“They’re here to help mommy get better,” his dad said – the now-automated response he formulated when the nurses first started coming. “They give her medicine that will make her strong, so she can play outside with us again.”

Sammy kicked the floor. “If we were living on my star, mommy would never be sick – no one would.”

His dad patted his head. “We’ll have to go there then.” His dad dismissed himself to go upstairs. Sammy didn’t follow. He took his DS and went outside. He sat on the soccer ball as it became a tiny red ball of fire, and it warmed his bottom. He giggled at the feeling. He opened the screen and started playing.

Night came. The stars shone bright against the purple sky, the horizon alight with reds and pinks, losing the battle against night, fighting for the right to retain the sky – a battle that is never won by either side. Sammy searched and searched until he found his star. Anyone else wouldn’t have seen where he was looking, but it was his, so he could pick it out like a flamingo in a graveyard. He stayed outside on the patio, with a sleeping bag he brought out, and stared up with his hands behind his head. He looked towards his house. The upstairs window of his parents’ room was on. His dad came to the window and looked out. He looked down and met Sammy’s eyes. He smiled and waved at the boy. Sammy waved back.

A few minutes later, Sammy saw the kitchen light come on, and the clanging of pans, the running of water – spaghetti time. His dad brought out a bowl of spaghetti with some of the store-bought meatballs that he loved, and Sammy ate in silence. His dad sat at the table, kicking his feet up and leaning back on the chair, always dangerously close to tipping over, but rolling back to plant his feet just in time.

The red star twinkled and winked at Sammy from its high seat, beckoning for the return of its friend. Sammy watched the light show in the sky, thinking about what kind of rocket he could build that could get him there in a timely manner. He’d need big sheets of metal, bolts, a cone-tip, an antenna, and some class for the windows. It would go a trillion miles a second and he could be there in a matter of days. All he would need are a couple of snacks, a bed, a DS charger, and a couple of books that he could introduce the inhabitants of the planets to. After he built his own rocket, it would be very easy to teach them how to build their rockets.

His dad cleaned the plates went inside. The phone rang. His dad came back out. “Hey sport, Nick and Sven are going to Rudy’s house. Do you want to go?”

Sammy looked up at his dad. “No. I think I’ll stay here.”

“You sure? It sounds like it’s going to be a real hootenanny,” Dan said, criticizing himself for sounding like some old bumpkin.

“I’m coming up with a plan. I’m going to get us to my star.”

His dad laughed and went back inside. He came back with a bowl of ice creamed doused in hot fudge and sprinkles. There was a cherry on top. Sammy liked the way the cherries looked, but he never liked the way they tasted, so he tossed that into the dirt for the worms to indulge in some decadence for a change. “Hey!” Dan interjected. “I would’ve eaten that.”

“You snooze you lose.” Sammy took a big bite of ice cream and smiled at his dad, fudge and melting cream covering his teeth.

His dad passed him a roll of paper towels. They sat out for a little while before it started to get cold, then the two packed it all up and went inside. Sammy brushed up and got ready for bed, sliding beneath the covers, turning to look out his window, but the light from the road clouded out any of the stars. His dad came in. He grabbed the book from Sammy’s end table and started reading it. This put Sammy into a quickened stupor, sending him off to the lands of stars and galaxies, where creatures gallop through eternity, and Man exists in a faraway land.

He was on his star again, the warmth from underneath bringing a smile to his face. The marbles continued to circle around his throne, and his feet dangled off the side, hanging limp in the emptiness of the void. He counted his subjects – three big ones and many smaller ones circling those. He could feel their gratitude emanating, thanks for giving them a home, and warmth, and allowing them to be a part of his gracious kingdom. There was peace under his domain.

Sammy looked up, staring into the vast blackness above and around him. Stars twinkled and danced in the night sky, but there was something beyond that – a calling from far away. One star showed brighter against the pitch background than any of the others – a beacon sending a message of necessity. Sammy pushed himself up on the throne and stood, hand above his eyes to peer further into the abyss. The star twinkled and pulsed, shedding a bright light upon him for an instant before returning to dimness. It did that a few times and Sammy knew what he needed to do. He knelt down, planting his back foot, readying it for mobilization, and he pushed, leaping above the planets and soaring through the openness. He was increasing in speed as he went along, passing by star systems, dust clouds, and even seeing galaxies fly by in the distance as he approached that luminescent star, the light growing in size and luster until it was too bright for him to look at. He closed his eyes and let the darkness take him over.

Sammy shot from his bed and kicked his feet over the side, disappointed to feel rough carpet under them. He looked around, surrounded by darkness which soon took on the forms of dressers and desks and lamps, and he sighed in disappointment. He paced across the floor to his window. The streetlight outside had gone out, to his joy, and he had a clear view of the night sky. Stars dotted the sky. His star was dead in the center, dim and red, but clear to his eyes and his alone. Small meteors glimmered across the sky, their trail of dust tearing through the darkness for a millisecond before returning to nothingness. Sammy’s eyes unfocused for a moment and he saw something else. He focused again, and it was gone. He let his eyes water over and he saw it. It was growing brighter and larger. It was an object in the sky. His excitement started to rise. It was moving fast and towards him. He ran downstairs, careful not to make any noise to disturb his mother’s sleep. He unlocked the door and ran outside.

The light was gone. He unfocused his eyes again and watched as it descended. It wasn’t close. He’d seen meteors before, but none of them were like this. This was intentional. He watched as it penetrated through the atmosphere, a great bubble of fire and heat surrounding it. He watched it hurtle towards the ground at speeds too great for any airplane or helicopter. He watched as it slowed its descent and fell at a snail’s pace towards the earth. He watched as it silently fell behind the peak of one of the far-off hills lining the horizon. He wanted to run towards it. He wanted to see what it was. Perhaps it was the way he was going to get to his star. But he knew he shouldn’t go running out at night, so he decided to wait and ride his bike out there the next day. His dad had work and only the woman who looks after mom was coming over, so Sammy would have no trouble. He could get Sven to come with him.

Sammy went back inside and stared out of his window from the comfort of his bed, watching the hills for any signs of movement or anything. There was nothing for a while, and Sammy fell back to bed, back into the warm embrace of his star.