Open rooftops weren’t a luxury. Rather the only option. At midnight, the 10 year old finally caved in to open her eyes. She turned on her side to look at the door of her house. An un-resurrectable light gradually flickered to complete darkness. Turning on to her back again, she heard the rumbling of her stomach. She sat up and gulped a glass of water from the jug kept besides her bed. She laid down and stared at the stars.

For a moment. Just for a moment she felt she could reach them. The thought which formed a pretty smile at her lips. She quickly woke up and pulled out a book from under the pillow. The torch she had sneaked to bed shone on the Ruskin Bond written book. Just after a couple of pages, she closed the book.

She wanted to script her own story. She imagined how different it would be after some years. She saw herself eating a pizza. That new thing that looked too good to eat. She stood up stretching and walked to the sleeping piglet, Hritik. He was her secret confidant. She always loved how Hritik would just nod, whatever she told him.

She went back to her bed and tried to catch the drift of drowsiness. The cool breeze instead made her to jerk awake completely. She stared at those stars again. The village stars, she thought, had love for everyone who looked at them. This relationship was unusual. She wasn’t worried of the future. She wasn’t compelled to think happy thoughts. She liked the stars. The way they used twinkle. The way they came only when the sky was clear and the night had swallowed the light. There was something mysterious about the stars. Thousands of them twinkled in the dark, but if one looked closely each one was different. She wanted to feel the stars. Would they be as cold as ice or as bright as fire?

Years and months and days later…. 

She yelled for her husband to hurry up. Her husband threw the last bag into the trunk of the car. She started the car and switched on the music. The Nirvana strummed to the teen spirit. They reached the place right on time and she unloaded the trunk. Her husband went in to greet her family and she followed in close. After the traditional meal which she was craving for sometime, they all shared stories of life before and after. 

She asked her husband if he would like to sleep outside with her. He obliged but wondered why. She led him to the bed and they sat down. She asked him to look at the sky and tell her what he sees. She closed her eyes and visualized each and every little detail her husband whispered to her. She had resumed her affair with the village stars. A brief picture of her stepping on the moon from her spaceship blinked in her memory. She said to her stars, I have already met your moon and I will meet you too. She smiled at her innocence of taking the metaphor – reach for the sky literally. 

Her husband glanced her way and saw her gleaming more than the moon. He understood he was always her second love. This time the cool breeze brought her eyelids to kiss each other. 

Hritik snuggled in his bed and snorted in happiness.