stars can’t go extinct 💫

short fiction?

[A and B lie next to each other on a field. It’s nighttime and they’re looking up at the sky.]

A: Do you think stars will end up like dinosaurs?

B: What, extinct?

A: Yeah.

B: Stars can’t go extinct

A: What if one day we stop being able to see them?

B: How would that happen?

A: I don’t know. Pollution. Smoke. Global warming and all that.

B: I don’t think they could ever make the stars disappear.

A: What if the billionaires take them?

B: Why would billionaires take away stars? And how?

A: They take away most of the good stuff. They’d probably find a way to take the stars and use them for energy. Nuclear fusion, you know.

B: The billionaires can’t take nuclear fusion. That’s not how it works.

A: In the distant future, I mean. What if in hundreds of years, after we’re dead and everything, the billionaires fuck everything up so bad that the stars disappear?

B: Then we should bring a star to our grave and make sure no one can take it.

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IN THE FUTURE

[Y and Z stand on a patch of dirt together. It’s nighttime and there’s a street lamp near them lighting up the night.]

Y: Have you ever heard of stars?

Z: What?

Y: I saw them in a book. They’re these little lights that used to be up in the sky apparently. A really long time ago.

Z: Oh, so like fireflies. Or floating lanterns.

Y: No, they were just these lights that humans couldn’t touch. But we could see them. We loved them so much, we used to name them and make stories and pictures out of them. Do you think we could still find one?

Z: How could we find something that isn’t real?

Y: Isn’t real anymore.

Z: You’re too optimistic.

[The ground beneath them begins to glow with the light of a cosmic prisoner, alive at the sound of its name after so long. Y and Z exchange a glance.]

Y: Do you believe it now?

Z: Yeah, I think so.

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