**
Lisa scratches her head as she leans over the small wooden table to look for the piece connecting to the puzzle lying before her, trying to find the one that resembles to the other half of the cat ear.
Finding a piece that looked like the one she’s looking for, she smiles and picks it up, only to frown when it stubbornly wouldn’t fit into its slot. She huffs and tosses it aside, about to continue on her search when a grey shadow appears over the top of the scattered pile of puzzle pieces.
“Ooh, are you doing a puzzle?”
Seven year old Lisa looks up to find a girl smiling down at her. She has black hair tucked away from her face with a pretty pink bow and tantalizing brown eyes that matched her shirt, her smile as wide as the cartoon one glittering across the fabric, the cartoon smile under the words that read “Happy Star.”
Lisa blinks, and glances down at the obvious answer laid between them, too shy to say “yes” and too determined to be polite to say “no.” Her mama had told her that it is rude to be mean to someone who is trying to be nice. This new girl seems like she is trying to be nice.
She nods.
The girl lets out a squeal and skips around the circular table, her hair bouncing on her shoulders as she excitedly pulls out the chair next to Lisa and sits. Her eyes take in the finished work that Lisa has done, skitter over the work that she has not, before landing on her face. Lisa finds it hard to look away. “Can I help?”
She considers, standing up straight to glance around the library for her mom. Locating her over by a computer talking to an adult, she returns to her seat and nods again, shrugging shyly when the girl gives her another wide smile.
Lisa thinks her smile is really pretty.
“Thank you,” she says, scooting her chair closer so she can run her fingers over the puzzle pieces that Lisa had carefully put together.
Lisa usually doesn’t like it when other people touch her things, but for some reason this time she doesn’t seem to mind as she watches the girl’s index finger trace the outline of the ear of the space cat that she had been trying to find the missing half for. “You’re welcome.”
She giggles, her pink bow sparkling in the light as her hand stretches, picking up a puzzle piece that is flat on one side, “I like to find all the outside ones first.”
Lisa doesn’t say anything, just watches as the girl places the piece in her hand down onto the table next to Lisa’s work before picking up another, with a flat end this time on the other side.
The box in which Lisa had turned upside down to get to the space cat puzzle says that the whole thing only has fifty pieces, so it doesn’t take long for the girl to have all the outside edges collected and lined up.
Lisa’s eyes follow the way she easily puts them all together—thinking that this girl must be very smart—but they quickly snap back up at the recognition of the song humming from her lips. “You know Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?”
The girl’s face lights up at the question, looking happy that Lisa had finally said something besides the polite response to her thank you. She smiles again, her lips stretching from ear to ear. Lisa scratches at her cheek, suddenly feeling like her chest is feather light. “Yes! It’s my favorite song! I know every single word.”
Lisa grins. Wow, someone else knows them all too? Everyone in her class at school only knows how to sing the same two lines. “Me too!”
Her hands stop moving the pieces around and the girl bounces in her seat. “Ooh, really? Wanna sing it together?”
Lisa uses her feet to scoot herself closer to the girl with the pretty hair and friendly smile, her hand gripping the edge of the table. “Yeah!”
She looks so happy and excited that Lisa feels herself jumping to get started as well. “Yay!”
Lisa stares into her eyes—she doesn’t know why her own eyes aren’t that color, that bright and very beautiful—and opens her mouth so they can start the song at the same time.
“Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.”
Lisa likes the way their voices sound together.
“Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky.”
Lisa likes the way she tilts her head when they reach the middle.
“Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.”
Lisa likes the way she lets out a giggle when they reach the end.
“I think you’re a good singer.”
Lisa’s neck suddenly feels itchy and hot. “I think you’re a good singer too.”
Her smile is the biggest and happiest yet. “Thank you.” She shakes her head when Lisa automatically opens her mouth for a “You’re welcome,” cutting her off with an introduction of her name. “I’m Roseanne, what’s your name?”
“Lisa,” she answers quietly, pushing her hair behind an ear so it’s not covering her eyes. She wants to see her. “My name is Lisa.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Lisa.” Roseanne leans forward to give her a hug. “You’re a good friend.”
Lisa hugs her back, sad when Roseanne pulls away.
“How old are you?” Roseanne looks eager and curious for her response.
Lisa doesn’t know why everyone she meets likes to ask that question.
“I turned seven last month”
“Wow,” Roseanne gasps in wonder, “I’m seven too. I’m only one month older than you!”
Lisa doesn’t know why everyone she meets is older than her.
“Yeah,” she turns back to the unfinished puzzle on the table, “I’m one month younger.” She tucks her hand under the group of puzzle pieces that she had put together all by herself and carefully brings them over to Roseanne’s group to slot them into place. “There, it fits.”
“Yeah,” Roseanne says, sighing softly at the sight in front of them, “We’re almost done.”
Lisa likes the way she is now part of the “we” working on the puzzle that she had quickly found on the bottom of the shelf of the kids section of the library as soon as she walked in. She likes to work on puzzles while her mama uses the computer and talks to adults for her important adult stuff. She usually likes to work alone, but Roseanne is a good help. “We just need to find the other ear—“ she points to the empty spot, “And the rest of the stars.” She circles her hand around the surrounding area.
Roseanne nods, standing up in her chair, and Lisa watches attentively as she puts her hands on her hips. Her skirt is yellow. “Is it this one?” Lisa looks up from her pretty skirt to find Roseanne handing the piece that she had been searching for since forever over.
Wow, Roseanne really is very smart.
“Yes, thank you.” She takes the piece and leans over onto her elbows to put it in place. A sense of accomplishment makes her toes tingle at the perfect fit. “Now the stars.”
They make quick work on the rest of the puzzle, Roseanne standing and Lisa sitting, both reaching over each other’s arms to find and pick up and slot their own pieces into place, laughing at how funny the cat looks with a space helmet and astronaut suit and asking each other which star fits where.
It is only when Roseanne had put the last puzzle piece that they had on the table into place that Lisa realizes that they had one missing. A frown forms on her lips, her eyebrows scrunching into her nose in unhappiness and dissatisfaction at the lone and very evident hole of emptiness.
Roseanne pouts, collapsing back into her chair, her curls flying in the air at the sudden movement. “Aww, they don’t have the last one.”
Lisa doesn’t like the sadness in Roseanne’s voice, wanting to go back to the moment in which they had sang happily and prettily to favorite song. “It’s okay, Roseanne,” she knows it’s bad to lie but she just wants to see her new friend smile hugely again, “We can just pretend like it’s there. It’s just one tiny piece. Everything else is done.”
Roseanne looks down at her shirt, at the picture of the yellow smiling star across her chest. It seems like Roseanne got an idea because she suddenly sits up straight. “I’m gonna be right back.”
Lisa stares after her as Roseanne jumps up and runs over to the small arts and crafts table on the other side of the room, just then realizing that there are now other kids around her as well, reading and playing on the kids computers as well as with the buIlding blocks all over the orange carpet. It had been just her when she had come in a while ago with her mom. It had been just her when Roseanne had asked her if she could help with her puzzle.
Lisa likes how she hadn’t noticed there were other people in the room when she was with Roseanne.
Roseanne bounds back to her, the smile that Lisa had been waiting for now gleefully back on her pink lips, and Lisa’s eyes linger for a second or two before her mama’s voice rings in her head, telling her that it’s not nice to stare, because there are people out there in the world who could get mad if she does. She quickly pulls her eyes away.
She does not want Roseanne to be mad at her.
Her gaze catches on to the paper in Roseanne’s left hand, the markers in her right. She gets up from her seat so it takes less time for Roseanne to reach her.
“What about I draw the last piece?” The question is made as soon as Roseanne’s feet stop inches away from her sneakers. Her yellow dress sways against her legs. “I can just draw the last piece and then we don’t even have to pretend because the puzzle will be really done.”
Lisa finally gets it when adults say that they have nothing to say. Roseanne is pretty, smart, funny, good at puzzles, can sing, and can draw?
Roseanne tilts her head slowly to the side, her smile fading at the silence from Lisa. “You don’t want me to?”
Lisa shakes her head frantically, before realizing and changing to nodding. “No, I want you to.”
Lisa likes how white Roseanne’s teeth are.
They both sit back down, Lisa’s fingers playing with the hem of her shorts nervously as Roseanne uncaps her markers and sticks her tongue out and draws the last piece of the puzzle, concentrating really hard to copy the picture on the top of the puzzle box. Lisa tries to get a closer look, but Roseanne just giggles and moves her arm to block her from peeking.
It doesn’t take long for her to finish, and Lisa is glad because she is getting a feeling like the one she gets when she really has to pee.
Roseanne’s arm moves out of the way, but Lisa could only just see the fact that the drawing is dark blue and yellow before it’s covered once again, this time by a mass of black hair.
Roseanne groans, her face hidden behind her hair on the table, “I forgot the scissors.”
Lisa doesn’t know what to do, because she has never seen anybody do that before, unless it’s one of her classmates sleeping, which Roseanne is not.
But it looks like she didn’t have to do anything, because Roseanne is already making her way back across to the arts and crafts table before Lisa could blink.
The drawing is finally revealed, and Lisa gasps, because it’s two tiny yellow stars reaching for each other in front of a space blue background. The stars look like they’re holding hands.
It’s beautiful.
Lisa is scared to touch it.
Roseanne returns, snipping the scissors playfully but carefully in the air as she picks up the paper and cuts out her drawing in the outline of the missing puzzle piece.
Her tongue sticks back out.
Lisa doesn’t know why, but she likes that too.
“There,” another happy giggle, “All done.”
Lisa feels like someone is pushing her as her body lurches forward to watch every second of what’s about to happen.
The last puzzle piece crawls through the air, slowly but surely, and Lisa holds her breath like she’s swimming underwater as it finally lands onto the empty hole in the top corner of the puzzle.
It fits.
Perfectly.
Lisa doesn’t know who squeals first, but suddenly they’re in each other’s arms and they’re hugging and jumping around as if they are—as what her favorite tv show character calls it—weirdos.
“We’re done! It’s finished! The space cat puzzle is done!” Roseanne's excitement is screamed into her ear.
“We did it! You’re so smart, Rosie, we didn’t even have to pretend!”
Lisa doesn’t know why, but the sound of Roseanne’s name in her mouth is like a new song.
“It wasn’t just me, Lis, you helped too!”
The sound of hers without the “a” in it is an even better one.
Lisa doesn’t think Roseanne’s right—she didn’t even do anything—but she likes the feeling of hugging Roseanne so she hangs on.
Roseanne suddenly pulls away however, and Lisa was just about to ask if she’d done something wrong when her new friend spins around.
There’s a...teenager?...crouching behind Roseanne, with the same hair and bright brown eyes, and that is all she could make of her because Roseanne is already launching herself at the girl.
“Alice!” Her arms go to wrap around her neck.
“Hey, baby sis,” her sister says affectionately, laughing and blowing a kiss into her cheek, making her explode into a fit of giggles, “Wanna head home?”
“Yeah, Alice. But can we get ice cream first?” Roseanne pouts, her eyes going big, and somehow Lisa knows that this time, Roseanne is not sad.
Her heart pounds weirdly in her chest, and she rubs the toe of her sneaker against the tiled floor.
Roseanne’s sister makes a noise in her throat, a noise like the one Lisa’s mom always makes when she sees puppies on tv, and somehow Lisa already knows her answer, “Of course, baby sis. We can get your favorite ice cream on the way home to see mommy and daddy, okay?”
Roseanne squeals, her arms squeezing her sister’s neck tighter once—burying her nose into her sister jaw—before releasing completely. Her next words make Lisa freeze. “Wait, I have to tell my new friend bye first.”
Roseanne’s sister peeks around Roseanne and sends Lisa a kind and warm smile. “Sure.”
Roseanne turns and bounces back to Lisa, pulling them together and fitting their bodies like puzzle pieces, “Bye bye, Lis.”
Lisa swallows, feeling like she is going to cry, “Are you gonna come back?”
Lisa is going to beg for her mom to come back next weekend if she says yes.
Roseanne’s sigh flutters against the side of her face, “I don’t think so. I live far far away. Alice just needed to come here to do something, and now we’re going back home.”
Lisa sniffles, tugging and holding Roseanne into her shorter self for as long as she could. She wants to ask Roseanne where she lives, but is too shy and scared to do so.
And if it’s far far away, she might not even know how to get there.
Roseanne kisses her cheek. “Aw, don’t cry, Lisa. We’ll see each other again. Friends always do. And even if we don’t,” she presses her smiling lips to the same spot, “We are stars, and stars never disappear.”
Lisa bites the inside of her lip to stop her tears, and she nods in understanding before letting Roseanne go.
Roseanne sends her a last big, wide, happy, shiny, friendly smile, before skipping back to her sister and taking her hand and leaving the library.
Lisa’s eyes never leave her back.
It’s not counted staring when the other person can’t see you.
Black heads walk past swinging glass doors and Lisa releases her lip, only then allowing herself to say the words out loud, “Bye bye, Rosie.”
It is fifteen minutes later that her mom comes to get her.
Lisa gets up from Roseanne’s chair and takes her mom’s hand, not pulling her eyes away from the finished puzzle laid out before her until the very last minute.
They move towards the swinging glass doors. Lisa looks up.
“Mama, I wanna be an astronaut.”
Her mom smiles down at her, her expression open and loving and curious, and Lisa feels the grip on her left hand tighten. “Why do you want to be an astronaut, Lisa?”
The fingers of Lisa’s right hand shove into the pocket of her shorts and she feels for Roseanne's puzzle piece star drawing, “Because stars are pretty and far away, and I just want to go and be with them all the time.”
Her mom says something really thoughtful, but Lisa doesn’t hear, because her fingers have brushed against the paper puzzle piece in her pocket and her heart’s thinking about how she and Roseanne fit together, like stars.
**
Ctto
Goodbye for now ☺️
I'll be back. Idk when. But I will. I promise.
Byebye. Will miss y'all :) lovelots.
Annyeong~~~~~