Star Child

Five - Astraphae

"How was your day at school, sweetie?" my mom's cheery voice asked me one day.

I sniffled as I dropped my backpack on the living room floor carelessly. "Awful."

"Aw, I'm sorry," she said comfortingly. She beckoned for me to come into her arms, and as soon as I looked her in the eyes my sniffles turned to full on crying. I hopped in her lap and grabbed her tightly, burying my face between the recliner and her back. She asked me, "What happened?"

I sniffled loudly and wiped my eyes. "There was a mean kid at recess and he kept saying bad things."

"Bad things about what?" she questioned.

"About a new girl. He keeps telling people she's ugly and making fun of her clothes." I tried my hardest as a seven-year-old to explain what was happening to my mom, but my words weren't working properly.

She looked down at me and asked, "Well do you think that she's ugly?"

"No."

"Then she's not," my mom stated simply. "Don't let that bully make his reality your own. Bullies only win if you believe their lies."

"But," I spoke up, a small hope forming that I could actually do something about the situation, "what if the bully is hitting someone?"

My mom looked to one corner of the room, thinking of the best response. I knew she would tell me to tell a teacher, just like all the other adults. That was always the answer back then, tell a teacher, tell an adult. But my mom wasn't just any adult, and I was surprised when she told me, "If that boy is doing anything to hurt that girl, physical or verbal, I want you to protect her like she's your sister."

And that's what I did the next day. I hid behind a tree and waited for him to approach the girl, his hands tucked smugly in his pockets, and as soon as he took one hand out to poke her shoulder I sprinted out from the shadows and tackled the boy who must've been at lease twenty pounds heavier than me. My adrenaline was pumping so hard that I blacked out with rage and didn't realize what I had done until a math teacher was yanking me off the kid. His nose was bleeding and my hands were sore from repeatedly whacking him in the face, but I was beyond happy.

I got suspended for a few weeks, but I didn't care. I made friends with the girl I protected soon after, and every recess after that I would go with her and tell her I would protect her from all the bullies. My mom wasn't even that upset either, in fact, she was proud of me for defending Liz. But she warned me that same day I got suspended, "Just remember, Leo, there's a big difference between defending the weak and attacking the strong." I never quite knew what she meant by that, but now I think I do. One is done out of love for the innocent, and the other is done out of hate for the powerful. Or at least that's how I interpreted it. My mom always had a funny way with words, but everything she said and did was out of love. She truly was an angle sent to Earth, I guess God missed her so much that he had to bring her back.

I woke up from my dream about my childhood and I rubbed my eyes, but as I did so I saw I was holding a radiant white hand. I noticed it was very dainty, the fingernails like polished opal on a silky smooth surface. I looked over and saw Arazarah looking straight ahead, her eyes weary with sleepiness. Maybe I wasn't dreaming after all, I thought.

"Oh good, you're finally awake! You were out cold," she exclaimed excitedly.

I swiveled my head and saw the stars and planets race past. It was funny how this whole traveling through space thing worked; it seemed as if we were moving faster than light, yet we could see the features of each moon and dwarf planet in full as we passed them, even though we were millions of miles away. A few times I could feel the slight tug of a star while passing through a solar system, but our velocity was so high that we exited the system and the galaxy before it could pull us into its orbit. In a way it reminded me of taking a road trip and seeing all the new places for the first time. Some galaxies were full of vibrancy and life, like a dense forest, while others were dead or dying, either because the star was about to collapse and become a supernova, or a smaller galaxy was being cannibalized by a larger one, similar to the death of an arid desert.