You don’t have friends? I do. At night.

You can also find this short story here

Image from: http://wbsm.com/free-night-sky-viewing-at-umass-dartmouth-observatory/

 

His parents did not know his friend. The child wanted to introduce him to them, but he was waiting for a suitable time.

 

His friend was awesome. They met every day. But not during the day. For some reason, his friend insisted on meeting in the evening. He would come to his room and they would talk about many things. His friend especially liked talking about distant places. He said he had seen a lot of different parts of the world. The child was already in shock when he heard that. He himself had never traveled to any other place than his hometown. But a bigger shock came when his friend said he had even traveled to space. He found this awkward. How could he travel to space? When he asked his friend this question, his friend simply said that this was very natural to him and that he always did that. Then he started describing the space.

 

Apparently, the space is a very active place and you can never get bored. There are many friends you can meet there, first of all. But he warned that space people also get angry very easily. When they do, they throw huge stones at each other. There are a lot of places you can sit on as well. He said these places are a bit like places where people rest for a bit when they travel.  He also added that these places are usually situated in parks. Like the parks in this world. Just as lively. Maybe even livelier.

 

At first, he did not want to believe all this. But his friend said he would take him to the space to convince him and he agreed. His friend held his hand and they started moving up. Kind of like the space shuttles that he had seen on TV. They were going straight up. They went up and up and his friend led him to a place like the resting places he had mentioned. It looked just like the park in their neighborhood. He said this place had the best view. One could see a lot of activity down there and it also had a broader view. It was in the middle of a big park where the child saw a lot of interesting beings having fun. It looked beautiful but the child was worried. He wanted to see his world. It was not visible. His friend told him not to worry. He said he would take him back safe and sound. He had no choice but to trust him.

 

The child saw a stone flying in the space. More like falling rather than flying. He asked what that was. His friend showed him two beings fighting down there. He said the one in yellow had thrown the stone to the one in white because they were fighting. But he had missed his target, so now the stone was just falling. He asked how long and where the stone would fall. His friend said he did not know.

 

His friend held his hand again and they went to another park this time. This one was even bigger and looked fancier but did not look over a nice view like the one before. This one looked over a huge darkness. The child was scared. His friend told him to calm down and then said that there was a lot of darkness in space too. So, this was normal for space.

 

After they sat there for a while, the friend said it was time to go home. The child agreed. He had enjoyed it a lot, though he was also a bit scared. They went to his room again. His friend left and the child slept.

 

When the child woke up the next morning, he decided that he would tell his parents about his friend because his friend was awesome. He had realized this even better last night. He went to the living room and his parents were there. He told them about his friend and his travels (but he did not say he had gone to space with him. His parents would get angry at him because he had not asked their permission). He also added that he only came in the evening. His parents were puzzled but said they would want to meet him in the evening that day.

 

The child waited eagerly for the evening to come that day and finally, it did. He led his parents to his room. He looked at the spot where his friend appeared first every evening. He could not see him this time. He looked and looked but to no avail. He was very sad and his parents were trying to console him. With one last hope, he looked at the spot again. This time, he noticed that his friend was covered by clouds and that is why he could not see him.

 

‘Maybe he will come later’, he said to his parents.

 

His parents agreed and left the room for that evening. The child continued looking at the spot.