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For those who dream of stars
One does not tie up guests, Alex.”
“I’m sure your parents wouldn’t mind if you became someone you liked instead of the person you are. It’s better to be happy a little bit than to not be happy at all.”
“And now bacon comes from pigs too?” She shook her head. “What magnificent creatures. I wonder who looked at them for the first time and thought to themselves how many meals they could make out of them.”
“This is pig?” she said through a mouthful of meat. “Holy wow, what the heck!”
“You told me that you have to be nice when you can because you don’t know when it could mean everything to someone.”
I just think it’s important sometimes to be remembered for what you lived for rather than what you died for.”
“Sometimes you need to take things on faith,” she said quietly. “Even if you think you have no faith left, I promise you, you do. All of you do. It’s easier, I think, to stay lost. But when you’re found, when you open your eyes, you can finally see the truth for what it is.”
“Nate. You—Jesus Christ. Boy, if you make me get on a plane, I am going to kick your fucking dick, do you hear me? And I’ll make you pay me back for a first-class ticket because there is no way my ass is sitting in coach.”
He thought one of them was called Green Creek, really nothing more than a village.
“You think yourself alone. You think yourself lost. We wanted to show you that there was so much more than this place. We didn’t come to hurt you. We didn’t come to save you. Only you can do that. We came to be your friend. To make you understand that, in the end, you are never alone.”
Underneath the pale flesh of his palms, he could see the twisted shape of veins. He turned his hands over and saw the bones beneath his skin as he moved his fingers up and down.
They were beneath a universe of stars, brighter than he’d ever seen before. They seemed to stretch on forever, more so than he could possibly comprehend. He’d never felt so small in his entire life.
It’s almost impossible to understand. None of us could get that. Not until they felt a heart beating in a chest like I have. Not until I felt the bones beneath my skin. We’re not alike. Not really. We’re separated by time and space. And yet, somehow, we’re all made of dust and stars. I think we’d forgotten that. And I don’t know if you ever knew that to begin with. How can you be alone when we’re all the same?”
“Pragmatism has no place when dealing with the unknown. If someone comes uninvited through the back door, you don’t welcome them into your home. You get your gun and show them who lives there.”
Oh yeah. Nate had seen heartbreak up close before. And he felt it then, too, in his chest. Right down the middle. He understood, briefly, what Peter had meant by scraped raw. There was this girl, this perfect little girl, who wasn’t a girl at all. And she wanted to dance.
“I know now,” she said. “What it means to be human.” He wiped away her tears. “What?” “It means having your heart broken. There is nothing more human than a broken heart. How am I supposed to leave you both?”
She said, “I wondered what you would be like. Humans. What you would be capable of. How your minds would work. How your hearts would beat. You are animals. Fierce and wild. You are harsh and brutal and beautiful. There is no one like you in all the universe. You have the power for such destruction within you. And such joy. It’s a dichotomy that shouldn’t exist, and yet here it is. Within you. Within all of you.” She leaned forward and kissed his forehead. Each cheek. The tip of his nose. “I’m glad we found you. I’m glad he has you. Remember that when you look up at the stars.”
You may not see their purpose, but I have seen their hearts. I have seen their souls. They are stars. They are dust. And I will remember them. Always.”
