The Girl in Love with the Stars

Every night Hila sat at the window of her home and looked at the sky. The white stars in the dark night looked like cat’s eyes.

“How are these bright lights stuck up above us?” she wondered. “How many are there?”

When the moon came out between the stars, it made Hila even more surprised and happy. Sometimes the moon looked like a round drum, and the stars looked like friends dancing … then, while she was watching, she fell asleep.

It was time to go to school when it started raining heavily. Hila opened her umbrella as fast as she could and lifted it over her head in the wind.

The wind blew harder and she grasped tightly so it wouldn’t blow away. She was still holding on when a big gust pulled the umbrella and it went up taking Hila with it into the sky.

Thump-Thump

Her heart was beating fast and the umbrella flew like an airplane. Her hair fluttered, her braids danced. She kept going higher and was afraid to let go because the umbrella would disappear and she would fall.

After traveling a great distance, she saw that the moon was coming closer. It was enormous. From her window at home it had looked bright and shining but now there was no light, it was just a lump of rock suspended in the sky.

“I hope I get there soon,” she thought.

But fear gripped her when she thought of yesterday’s lesson at school.

“There is no oxygen on the moon,” she could hear her teacher saying.

Above the moon, the stars could still be seen. They looked like rocks too.

“What if I fall?” she thought.

Her arms ached, her hands were numb but looking down, she spotted a light she had never seen before. It was new and extraordinarily beautiful, and it gave her courage.

“Why did the umbrella lift me into the air?” the question appeared in her mind and very quickly she found the answer. “Because it was open and the strong wind carried it.”

Slowly, little by little, she began to close the umbrella and her speed slowed. A little more and she began descending gently until she could see that she was approaching the new light in the sky.

The beautiful glow filled her with delight. Brightness appeared, round and green, just the size of her brother’s football. A little lower and she noticed wisps of white clouds … then oceans, beautiful forests, mountains and lush green fields. She was still falling when she realised that it was nighttime. In the darkness, her own city lay hidden beneath a blanket of twinkling lights.

A longing to return home began to stir within her heart and she forgot about the umbrella which closed completely so that she was falling at great speed, plummeting downward with only the whistle of wind in her hair.

“If I crash to the ground …”

Fear rose within her. Memories of her father, mother, her brothers and classmates, flashed through her mind.

“What if I die and leave them all behind?” tears gathered in her eyes. “I must do something to stay alive.”

She looked down and the Earth was very close. She could already see her home when she remembered the umbrella clenched tightly in her hand.

Snap!

The umbrella opened in an instant and, with a soft tug, Hila landed gently.

The sound woke everyone in the house and her parents were shocked to find their daughter on the rooftop with an umbrella in her hand.

They carried her to bed and, with her eyes closing, she told her parents the story of her journey before she could sleep.

“My child,” her mother smoothed her hair. “To make great dreams is to find a way to fly so high.”

The End

* Photo credit: Jordan Reed

Original Pashto