The Night the Stars Went Out
Ada promised her brother the Bear tonight. But not one star has come out.
Who is in this story
Ada
She promised her brother the Bear, and the sky is empty.
Tom
He has been standing in his coat for an hour.
The owl
She is awake all night, and she knows things.
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The Night the Stars Went Out
One night, the stars did not come out.
Not one. Not a single one.
Ada saw it from her window and could not believe it. She rubbed the glass with her sleeve. She looked again. The sky stayed dark and empty, like a page with nothing written on it.
This was a problem, and it was Ada's problem.
She had promised her little brother Tom that tonight she would show him the Bear. Seven stars. Four for the body and three for the tail. Grandad had shown Ada when she was small, and now it was her turn to show Tom.
Tom was already in his coat. He had been in his coat for an hour.
"Where is it?" said Tom.
"It is coming," said Ada.
It did not come.
So Ada put on her coat too. If the stars would not come to the garden, she would go out and find out why.
Outside, the grass was cold and wet through her shoes. The whole world felt switched off.
The first one she asked was the cat.
The cat was sitting on the wall doing nothing, which is what cats do at night when they are busy.
"Where have the stars gone?" said Ada.
The cat looked up. Then the cat looked back down.
"I look at mice," said the cat. "I do not look at stars."
And it went back to looking at mice.
That was no help at all.
Next, Ada asked the fox.
The fox came trotting along the lane with something in his mouth that Ada decided not to ask about.
"Have you seen the stars tonight?" said Ada.
The fox put the something down.
"I have not," he said. "But then, I never look up. Looking up is how you lose your dinner."
He picked the something up again and trotted off.
That was no help either.
So Ada went to the end of the garden, where the old tree stood, and she asked the owl. She had left the owl until last. The owl was awake all night and knew things, and owls are a little bit frightening even when they are being kind.
"Hoo," said the owl.
"Please," said Ada. "The stars did not come out."
The owl turned her head almost all the way round, which owls can do and people cannot.
"Of course they did not," said the owl. "The stars are tired."
"Tired?"
"Nobody has looked at them for a whole week," said the owl. "Not one person. Everybody was indoors, looking at other things." She clicked her beak. "Stars need looking at. It is how they stay bright."
Ada thought about this.
"That cannot be true," she said.
"Try it," said the owl.
So Ada lay down in the cold wet grass and looked up.
Nothing happened.
She looked at the place where the Bear should be. She looked hard. She looked until her eyes stung.
Nothing happened.
The wet came slowly through the back of her coat. Behind her, the cat was still looking at mice.
"It is not working," Ada called.
"Keep looking," said the owl.
Tom came out and lay down beside her. He was quiet for about four seconds, which for Tom was a record.
"Is it working?"
"Not yet."
"Is it working now?"
"Tom."
They lay there. The church clock rang once, for half past something. A cold little wind went over them and moved the grass.
Tom sat up. "I am going in," he said. "There is nothing there."
"One more minute," said Ada.
"You said that already."
"One more minute," said Ada, and she did not take her eyes off the sky.
And then.
One small star blinked on. Just one. No bigger than a pinhole in a curtain.
Ada did not shout. She did not move. She was afraid that if she moved it would go out again.
"Tom," she whispered. "Tom. Lie down."
Tom lay down.
Another star came on. Then two more, close together.
Then the sky did something Ada would remember when she was old. It filled up. All across the black, stars came on in twos and threes and handfuls, quicker and quicker, until there were far more than anybody could count. The whole dark page was written all over.
And there, halfway up, were seven of them in a shape Ada knew.
"Four for the body," said Ada.
"Four for the body," said Tom.
"Three for the tail," said Ada.
"Three for the tail," said Tom.
They lay in the wet grass and looked until their necks ached and their fingers went numb, and Mum came out and told them both to come in this instant.
At the door, Ada stopped and looked back at the tree.
"Thank you," said the owl.
"I did not do anything," said Ada.
"You looked," said the owl. "That was the whole thing."
Ada went inside. Tom went to bed with his coat still on, and nobody noticed until the morning.
And the stars stayed up all night over the house, bright as anything, being looked at.