The Star That Wasn't A Star

I saw Jupiter last night. He waved and winked, and I was quite excited.

It went something like this:
"Dave, I don't want to walk up this hill."
"Just a little farther, Ariele, and you can go to bed."
"Dave, look at that star."
"Ariele, there are a lot of stars."
"No, that one." I pointed.
Dave pulled out his Droid with the star map app.
"It's Jupiter."

And then rushing filled my ears and the universe seemed to shrink, just for a moment, to the point where I felt like I could almost touch Jupiter, a rolling ball of gas wandering through the sky, shining brightly past its 63 moons and invisible rings, and dropping its light neatly into the palm of my hand. Then Dave began to drag me once more towards home, with a bit of stardust in my eye and a stream of starlight in my wake.


*"Jupiter." nineplanets.org. Nine Planets. ND. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.