The Stars and the Meteors

 The Weight of the Falling Stars

By Wren Davies

Charlotte sluggishly turned her head towards the window and gazed outside. The sun was setting and casting a glow of cotton candy clouds across the sky with a soft lilac buttercream. From her room in the children’s hospital, Charlotte could see all the way out to the coast where fellow teenage girls were playing volleyball in the evening sun. Charlotte sighed and moved her head back because as much as her parents tried to deny it, her death was imminent and she felt that. Charlotte had been battling leukemia for a grueling ten years. She relapsed twice and now aged fifteen, her body was beginning to shut down. The day that the doctor mentioned palliative care, Charlotte’s parents burst into tears, but Charlotte felt at peace with that decision because her body was tired of fighting and it would be much easier for her to die no longer in constant pain. 

That was six months ago when the pain had been manageable, now it either dully clung to her like mist in the morning or painfully shot broken arrows at her in the afternoon. One morning a few weeks ago, she woke up with a huge headache, and her parents were concerned that it could be something worse. They rushed her to the hospital which Charlotte thought was frivolous because she knew that the nurses could only give her stronger pain medicines that hardly worked. Still, she had agreed to come for her parents sake, she did not want them to think that they did not do enough after her death. 

Now she lay on the hospital bed and stared at the ceiling for the rest of the summer evening as darkness was slowly painted onto the sky, casting shadows into her room. She only moved to eat her dinner and for the nurses to check her pain and vitals. She hardly answered her parents when they were asking her how her pain was. They knew how it was, they knew how it always had been. Charlotte’s silence, though, unnerved her parents: after they had tried talking to her for the fifth time and got no response, they dragged a doctor into her room because they were convinced the pain was even worse.

Charlotte only moved her body that evening when the stars came out, she loved the stars because they were oblivious to the millions of people who watched them and the fact that they were the one certain thing in her life. That night was strange, when Charlotte looked at the stars and when she would turn her head, the stars also seemed to shift to the side. Charlotte frowned and shifted her head the other way to which the stars seemed to follow. She lifted a shaky arm and drew a circle in the air and was shocked when the brightest stars seemed to form that very circle. Charlotte thought she was dreaming and laid back down in bed again.  

The next morning, Charlotte was hesitant to tell her parents about what she saw and what she did. She gauged how her parents would react to her dream because she was scared that they may think the pain medicine was making her hallucinate. But instead, her mom looked shocked and then showed Charlotte a news article about how last night the stars were behaving erratically. Charlotte’s dad then left the room crying because he knew that Charlotte would be a star soon. Her mom gave her a quick hug and kiss then followed him out the door. Charlotte felt bad; she did not want to make her parents cry; they were the most altruistic people she had met. They sacrificed everything for her with her dad even turning down his dream job with dream pay, instead choosing to wait for Charlotte to wake up after her spinal tap. Charlotte felt her eyes beginning to close again and let them because palliative care was mostly about preparing her body to sleep forever and Charlotte wasn’t about to fight that. 

When she woke again that evening, the stars were already out and seemed to be waiting for her. Her parents had left for the night, they knew how prudent she was and that she needed teenage independence. Charlotte mustered up all her strength and slowly sat up, removing the thin oxygen cannula. She then swung her legs over to the side of her bed and stood up before carefully maneuvering her IV pole around to the other side of the bed and then quickly wobbling her way to the window seat where she immediately threw a blanket over herself. Charlotte immediately looked out of the window and saw the twinkling stars shining bright on her. She rested her head against the windowsill and began playing with the stars again: left, right, left, right. The stars seemed to follow every movement like ducklings following their mother against a current. Charlotte gave a laboured sigh and looked back at her hospital room, the ghost of hope and life lingering hesitantly as she took each breath. 

Charlotte turned back to the window and began making the stars do loop de loops across the sky, the fainter ones seeming to trail behind like a student late for school. She glanced at the beach and saw that there was a bonfire down there, but everyone was just watching the stars. Charlotte immediately stopped what she was doing annoyed because nothing was ever truly hers. At least death would be private, at least she would have control of her body there. But then again, she would lose her parents and her life, etched into the world like a memory. 

Charlotte’s breathing hitched as she began to cry. She was fine with dying; she had accepted that a long time ago, but she also realized that she did not want to be forgotten. Charlotte looked out the window again and saw that her tears were making a meteor shower outside, each meteor going as fast as her tears. The sight of the meteors augmented the flow of her tears as she began to cry harder because she had only discovered this gift for a short time. Charlotte’s breathing slowed from the lack of oxygen and tears, so she tried to stop crying and tried to get up to move herself back to bed but she was unable to. The force of crying had used up her remaining strength, so Charlotte sighed and rested her head against the window while letting the remaining clear tears slide from her face. 

As the seconds grew on, her breathing slowed and her pulse grew weaker until it was as faint as her clear skin. Charlotte looked out of the window and watched the meteor shower that she created. She died peacefully a few minutes later, her head resting against the window and her eyes now closed like it was closing her journey on Earth. After she died, the tension and quiver of hope also dissipated. Charlotte’s parents rushed in a few minutes after she died and immediately ran over to her. Her mother took one look at her and knew that she had died, while her father looked outside and saw the most beautiful meteor shower. Her mother scooped up Charlotte and let out the most loud, raw, heartbroken sob, a sob like her heart was being ripped out of her chest, a sound that only a mother can make, a sound that brings everyone that hears to tears. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tomato Bisque Soup and Grilled Cheese

Tomato Bisque Soup and Grilled Cheese   By Lukas Bell   Serves 4 | 30-45 minutes  This tomato soup is delicious, easy, and fun to make. It uses ingredients you could easily find at your local grocery store. It’s perfect for dinner, lunch, or to be put in the fridge and reheated for a later meal. This soup is creamy, tangy, and perfect for a cozy fall night.  Ingredients  2 28oz cans whole tomatoes 1 cup celery, diced 1 cup onion, diced ¼ cup all-purpose flour 1 tbsp sugar 2 tsp salt 1 cup heavy cream 1 tbsp tomato paste 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) Desired amount of black pepper 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional, but suggested) 4 cups chicken stock (optional, but suggested) For the grilled cheese 8 pieces of high-quality bread from a bakery 4 slices of any type of cheese. Cheddar and mozzarella are my personal favorites Butter for the bread  Equipment  A pairing or chef’s knife for dicing A large pot 1 measuring cup ¼ measuring cup 1 tablespo...
Read more

The Elements That Made the Mongolian Empire Outstanding

By Luca Crema Black Overview of the Mongolian Empire Before we look at the elements that made up the Mongol Empire, let’s overview it. The Mongol Empire existed from 1206 to 1368 (162 years). Keep in mind this is a relatively short time frame considering how much land the Mongol Empire amassed and how influential they were. The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous empire and second largest country in history. First was the British Empire, which existed from 1583 to 1997 (414 years). The Mongol Empire was founded and led by Genghis Khan who united, through warfare, the tribes of Mongolia. A series of military campaigns followed, which allowed him to conquer such a vast territory. Egalitarian Ideology Genghis Khan ruled the Mongol Empire with egalitarian principles. He promoted soldiers purely based on merit and distributed the spoils of war. This created an equal ground for soldiers of any level to improve, which led to a disciplined and encouraged ...
Read more

Columns

Image
By Megan Wong   Have you ever wondered where iconic architectural pillars came from? Well, the most common ones used today are considered the Classical Orders of Architecture which originated in ancient Greece and Rome. The five styles are called the Ionic, Doric, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite orders. They were used to define the style of the people living in certain areas of Europe and the era it was created in. Ionic Order The Ionic Order was created in ancient Greece by the Ionian Greeks in the 6th century. The column is primarily known for its two volutes as it gives the impression that the column is two-sided. It is also considered to be a more feminine version of the Doric column where the volutes and dart ornaments represent the female anatomy of ovaries and eggs. Others say that the volutes resemble scrolls to represent communication at the time. The order was created in Ionia, which we now know as Turkiye, and created some problems for architects at the time ...
Read more