STORYTELLING
Stargazer
Dreams Come True for Those Who Look High
Have you ever seen a shooting star, or are you still dreaming about it?
He was still gazing hopefully at the sky every night because, by some strange coincidence, almost all his friends had seen one. He wasn’t naive and he knew that most were probably just telling him this to tease him, but he wanted to be sure of himself and his truth.
A true stargazer, that’s what everyone called him. Ever since he was a little boy, he loved to look up boldly and explore the constellations and their wondrous lights. Everything was perfectly aligned. A special place was set aside for each star, and for himself, he wondered, what was set aside under that infinite sky…
And just as he loved the stars and counting them on clear, cloudless nights, so by day he worked bravely with the numbers in an accounting house. He was good at his job, and he knew it. Solving dilemmas and riddles excited him. He was the king of finding answers to all the tangled questions that made others just pout before giving up.
On a clear night with an even clearer sky speckled with countless stars glowing like streetlamps, he was coming home from a busy day at work.
He looked up again at Venus, which was like a guiding light to him and brought peace to his soul. He took comfort in knowing that it was waiting for him there in heaven — ALWAYS. And even when it was obscured by clouds, he imagined it. The planet of love.
He wished he could see a shooting star. His eyes were very high, and if he could — his body would start soaring through the air. And the moment one star came hurtling in front of his eyes, and for a split second he mentally said, “Venus, thank you!” he tripped and fell to the ground. He was so detached from everything earthly and corruptible that he didn’t even feel pain.
— Are you okay? — came a voice in front of him.
He looked up and saw a beautiful young woman with a half-scared, half-smiling face looking at him with pity.
— You must have fallen pretty badly.
— No, I’m all right. — He replied, standing up, patting himself down, and looking into her hazel eyes, which were glowing even brighter than the evening star.
He thanked her and walked away, she nodded at him with a smile and continued. The stargazer didn’t know whether to believe what had just happened. Which was truth and which was an illusion of his frantic desire to see a shooting star (and a beautiful woman who would captivate him from the first moment their eyes crossed). He went to bed that night, but he did not sleep. Or maybe he fell asleep with his eyes open. He could see the star and the woman at the same time, and he began to wonder if everything that had happened to him had been a dream.
The next morning, he got up for work out of habit. He was absent-minded. He made mistakes as he seldom did. He barely spoke to anyone, and the daylight irritated his tired, sleep-deprived eyelids. He forced the day out somehow. When he came home, he found that his notebook, in which he had described his favorite constellations, was gone. It wasn’t that he didn’t know all the information from it by heart, but he was a little saddened.
Several days passed, and the stargazing accountant grew more and more stuck. His figures were getting lost in clouds of stardust, and the manager noticed it.
— You seem a bit changed to me lately. Are you alright? Do you need a break?
— I don’t know exactly what’s going on with me. I saw a woman and…
— Oh, it’s clear. Come on, you better get some rest this week. We don’t have much to do anyway.
The man agreed. He didn’t know why. He was indifferent. He went home again and went to the balcony. Had that encounter with the woman and the shooting star been foretold? Where could he find her? The town wasn’t very big, and he sat down with a sheet of paper in his hand and the crazy idea of trying to make a list of all the places where he might see the woman again. He wrote down suggested times on a large table and decided to put all his energy into this for the coming week.
The next morning, he went to the square at 8 o’clock and began to look around at all the people with unconcealed interest and hope. He had even brought a pair of binoculars. This spectacular survey would have made his friends laugh, so he refused all appointments and arrangements on various excuses. He was aware that no one would understand his theory of the beautiful woman and the shooting star and their real existence. They would rather tell him that a meteor had struck him on the head than believe him. Several days passed but without any result. He walked the streets, in and out of shops, looking around the beauty salons (not that she needed them…). There were so many people, and all with their faces that said nothing to him. “Give me a sign, Venus…” he prayed at the end of the week.
He had hardly eaten or slept. He wondered what she was missing and where she was. What was missing from his equation? How could she have appeared at that moment and now be hiding? What if he didn’t meet her again? That thought breathed cold air into the back of his throat. He shuddered and felt very miserable.
The next day he would be back at work in a sea of numbers. And he wanted to be in her heaven embraces. He had neither rested nor found his shooting star. Like any man, it wasn’t enough for him that he had fulfilled his childhood dream. What was the point in that, when at the same moment he could not catch her, nor even the scent of the beautiful woman?
He went to the accounting house, with a coffee in his hand. He was greeted warmly and with a feeling of relief. After all, there was always a pile of work set aside for the colleague who was absent… He sat down at his desk and stared ahead of him.
— A woman came and left this for you. She said she found it and inside was a business card with the address of the company. She was beautiful, even too much …
The stargazer raised his head:
— Really? Describe her to me. Did she say anything else?
“Yes, that was the girl he’d run into that night. She used to come here… And I was gone. What a fool I am.”
He put his palms over his face. Was he so close to that happiness that was waiting to fall from the sky and pass him by? He took the notebook in his hands and opened it.
On the first page, in the little blank space left, in beautiful handwriting, was a phone number and a name — Venus…
Have you ever seen a shooting star, or do you still dream about it?
What is that stone that pushes you now and then away from this encounter and are you tripping yourself?
Open your eyes and look high. Be both here and there and remember that sometimes the best things are closer than you imagine.
