The boy and the star - A Short Story Written By Richard Jr Ocaya

A boy sat on the cold cement pavement and gazed at the stars. The dark night looked back at him like the eyes of the girl he fancies in his class. The boy made sure that none of his parents found out what he was doing or his neighbors because a beating he would most definitely receive. One star called him, bright red and stood in between two of her sisters.

‘Hey,’ the star greeted.

‘Hi,’ the boy responded looking up.

‘How have you been doing? I haven’t seen you in a while.’

‘Ah,’ the boy looks down shyly, ‘I have been doing my homework, and mom said I should always sleep early to get my eight hours of sleep.’

‘I missed you.’

‘I missed you too.’

‘I can see that you are not alright,’ the star said.

The boys grips his head in between his knees, he rubbed his hands in discomfort and held in his tears.

‘What is it. You know that you can always talk to me.’

The boy let it out, the dam walls under his eyes cracked, opened and let out all the water in it.

‘It’s my parents. Today they were fighting because my mother said I should pass my father a paper that was inside a brown bag. She said I must not look at it and give it to my dad. I did and my father pushed me away so harshly. I knocked my head on the table. He rushed to my mother and punched her in the mouth,’ the boy struggled to breathe because mucus blocked his nose, ‘And, and, and, and—’

‘I know friend,’ the star said. ‘You know, people struggle and fight not for the sake of struggling and fighting, but for them to soon realize that life is not about struggling and fighting. It may take lifetimes for them to learn that.’

The boy laughed through his tears, ‘What?’

The star laughed a bit too, ‘What I mean is that the struggling and fighting is not how life is supposed to be lived. People going through these things are supposed to grow out of it. They should come to realize that they can make life a pleasurable ride by cutting such things off. But many won’t because they keep themselves from healing, which will just attract more fighting and struggle in many forms including people.’

‘Such as my parents.’

‘Yes,’ the star said.

‘So what must I do?’ the boy asked.

‘It is simple. Realize that there is little you can do for your parent’s marriage. Being married is about loving someone else the very same way you love yourself.  Unfortunately, your parents grew up in homes where they were not loved and so you can see the fruits of that.’

‘So if they had realized that it was not supposed to be that way growing up—’

The star interrupts, ‘They would not be this way today.’

A light turns on in the house, the boy fearfully runs behind one of the shrubs and waits for the lights to turn off.

The star and her sisters laugh.


YouTube: @Rosaya.


Copyright©, Richard Junior Ocaya, 2024.

All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be copied, distributed, or published in any form without permission from the author.


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