She Made Stars

Her workshop was always covered in stardust. It was dangerous to breath in, so I vacuumed twice a day. I am merely her backup star designer so I only clean up the workshop after or while she designs the stars.

She didn’t give me her name when I first met her, so I just call her Star. Star is the only star designer in this universe that creates stars as beautiful or exquisite as she does. She uses a pencil with glowing ink instead of led to create stars. It is dangerous to hold them with bare skin, so she is always wearing her shimmering blue gloves. I asked her what it was made of, but she never gave me a straight answer.

I clear my throat as I step into her dusty workshop. Star was sitting at her desk, her luminous long red hair flowing behind her. She seems to be ignoring me again.

I sigh and adjust my shades as I walk nearer to her. “You’re late for supper. You know what the others will say if you skip supper again.”

“And why should that matter?” Star asks me. “Meri, come look at this. I think this is one of my best works.” One of her dusty gloved hands gestures for me to come closer.

Resigned, I cover my mouth with my sleeve and make my way over to her. The many blueprints of stars that were scattered around the floor does not make it easy. I told Star to at least put them into a neat pile, but she doesn’t take me seriously.

I look over her shoulder to see what she had made. The star radiates a hopeful energy, I notice. It was golden and exquisite and so beautiful. Whoever wishes on this star will be lucky. Well, they wouldn’t see it, but you get my point.

“Wow,” I mutter and lean down closer to it, tempted to take off my shades. “How long did this one take?”

“Hm… about an hour?” Star stretches her arms over her head and lets out a happy sigh. “I got the inspiration from looking at one of those human’s art masterpieces.”

“Oh, yeah?” I ask and turn my gaze to her. Star also had shades, on but they were much darker than my own. Her glittering grin was still visible, though. “Which one? Was it that… red haired man again?”

“Vincent Van Gogh!” Star exclaims and leans over her desk of star-making tools to grab a roll of paper. “See? Look at this!”

She shows me a painting of a starry night over a large body of water. The stars almost look like they were real and shimmering. Star has this strange fascination with the paintings of human artists. I don’t really blame her, however. Those humans could put some star designers out of business if they could come up here and handle the heat of the stars.

“It’s called ‘Starry Night over the Rhone,’” Star says happily. “I think this star’s an almost perfect replica of what Van Gogh had in mind.”

“Yes, I’m sure if he were alive today, he’d have loved your star,” I tell her and straighten up. “Perhaps he even wished on one of your stars.”

“Oh, that would have been amazing, wouldn’t it?” Star sighs and grins.

“Now, could you come to supper now?” I ask her and place a hand on her shoulder. “You can drop off the star at the exporter when we go by.”

Star grumbled and stood up. “Fine, let’s go.” She holds the star in her gloves, taking care to not adjust or crush the poor thing. With a smile, she nods at me and we leave the dusty workshop.