The little yellow circle was lonely.
She was different from the other children of the sky. The other children had fun. They were light and fluffy, without a care in the world. They were always playing charades and darting around. They would chase each other about and try to guess what they were pretending to be.
But the little yellow circle was different. No-one ever looked at her. And no-one ever tried to guess what she was pretending to be. There wouldn't have been any point. She never changed her shape. She was always the same: just a little yellow circle.
Everyday, from the time she woke up, until the time she went to sleep, she was the same.
And all she ever did was drift aimlessly across the sky. No-one even noticed her. She thought she must be incredibly boring and ugly.
Things had been like this for as long as she could remember. And she was becoming lonelier and lonelier.
One day, while she was watching some of the other children playing a game of charades, she thought that she could stand it no more. The pain of loneliness had become unbearable. She called out to one of the children.
"Hello," she said.
The child stopped. At that moment he was pretending to be a bunny rabbit.
"Hello," the little yellow circle said again. "Can you hear me?"
The bunny rabbit turned his head. He squinted at the little yellow circle. He seemed to be covering his eyes.
"Are you talking to me?" he asked.
The little yellow circle nodded, but the bunny rabbit didn't appear to notice.
"Yes," she said, "I'm sorry to bother you, but I watch you playing all the time. I know I'm boring and rubbish at charades, but no-one ever talks to me."
The bunny rabbit looked confused. He was shifting his shape uncomfortably, becoming less and less bunny-like with every passing second.
"Oh," he said, after an appreciable time, "That's really funny."
"Funny?" said the little yellow circle.
"Yes," said the almost bunny, "I've never heard anything so silly in my life. We notice you all the time, but the way you drift across the sky, you seem so peaceful. We never wanted to bother you."
The little yellow circle swallowed.
"Besides which," the almost bunny continued, "You're so intensely bright – with your golden yellow glow – it's difficult to look at you. I have to shield my eyes to prevent myself from going blind."
"But that's terrible," said the little yellow circle, "I never realised any of this. Peaceful?
Blinding? How awful. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry to cause you so much trouble."
"No trouble," said the almost bunny, now more a fuzzy blob than anything else, "In fact, it's only because of you that we have the light to play our games. At night, when you're asleep, we can barely see at all."
"Really?" said the little yellow circle.
"Yes," said the fuzzy shape, "You're pretty special."
The little yellow circle smiled. She'd never realized any of this.
"Thank you," she said to her companion, who swirled and danced, before bidding her a fond farewell.
I'm special, thought the little yellow circle.
And so the little yellow circle was happy for a while, content that she was special, now aware that different could also be something good.
But things were not completely right, because the little yellow circle was still feeling lonely.
After her conversation with the bunny rabbit, she spent a lot of time talking to the other children. But they always had to shield their eyes.
And she could never join in any of their games.
She was constantly aware of how different she was. She wished there was someone else like her that she could talk to.
She mentioned this to one of the children. He was busy playing, pretending to be a castle.
"I'm lonely," said the little yellow circle, "I know that I'm special and I don't mean to complain, but I feel so different from everybody else. There's nobody remotely like me anywhere."
The castle frowned.
"That's tough," he said. He clattered his drawbridge. "I feel sorry for you. That's got to feel pretty bad."
But then the castle started to dance.
"But do you know what?" he said. "There is someone else like you. At night, when you're asleep, a little silver circle appears. He drifts along just like you."
"Really?" said the little yellow circle. "He comes when I'm asleep?"
"Yes," said the castle. "He's here almost every night."
The little yellow circle was excited. "Do you think I'll ever meet him?" she said.
"I don't know," said the castle. "Maybe if you wish for it hard enough."
And so the little yellow circle wished. And time went by. But she never met the silver circle.
Her fluffy friends tried to help her. They told her stories about the silver circle, about what he did while she was asleep. And occasionally there would pass on messages. Apparently, he was lonely, too. Apparently, the silver circle wanted to meet her.
The little yellow circle was excited by this news, but she was also exceedingly frustrated.
Unfair that he only woke up when she was asleep. How could this be so?
Her frustration led to doubt. She began to wonder how similar were they really? The children had mentioned that the silver circle was a shape shifter. But he wasn't like the fluffy children; he changed regularly, like a gentle blink.
Still, he was the closest that she had to a perfect match and she was desperate to meet him.
Not that any of this mattered, because it seemed that it was never going to happen.
But then one day, a miracle occurred.
It was a day like any other – the fluffy children were playing and the little yellow circle was drifting aimlessly across the sky – when a ghostly shape appeared in the sky.
The shape was pale, almost transparent, but there was no mistaking his silver-grey colour, no denying his perfect round shape.
The silver circle had come to visit.
The little yellow circle watched him for a while. She could see that he was drifting towards her. She was very excited.
She called out to him across the sky.
"Hello," she said.
But the silver circle did not respond. He went right on drifting straight toward her.
"Hello," she said again, but less confidently this time.
The silver circle went right on drifting. He was coming closer and closer.
And suddenly, he was upon her. She could feel his touch. His silver skin was cold.
The little yellow circle shuddered.
The silver circle didn't stop. He kept on moving. He started to cover her up. He covered her face. And her covered her eyes.
He pushed himself on top of her until she was completely beneath him.
Everything was dark.
The little yellow circle cried out.
"Why is this happening?" she shouted. Her scream came out as a blinding flash.
The silver circle said nothing.
The little yellow circle was trapped beneath him.
"Why is this happening?" she said again.
But the silver circle did not respond. He stayed there, cold and grey on top of her.
And then he started to drift away. Without a word, and as if nothing had happened, he resumed his journey across the sky.
Soon he was no longer visible.
The little yellow circle was shaking. She had no idea what had happened. She was shocked and sad and felt more alone than ever.
She wanted to be somewhere else. She didn't like it in the sky. And with that thought, she started to shrink away.
As the little yellow circle shrank, it grew colder in the sky. The other children shivered.
They looked up and saw that the little yellow circle was leaving.
They called to her to come back. Some of them chased after her, but she didn't stop shrinking.
The sky became dark and grey. It was very cold.
"She's gone," said one of the children, a tear forming in his eye.
The other children nodded. One by one they were all starting to cry. Soon all the children were crying very hard.
"Come back," they sobbed. "Please come back."
But the little yellow circle was far away.
And all that they could do was hope that she'd return some day.
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Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this, please remember to vote and I'd love to hear your comments, positive or negative. Happy to receive feedback on corrections or clarifications, too.
I hope you also enjoy the other stories in this collection. This story has a partner story called The Little Silver Circle.