Highly Commended Story - The Mysterious Star

“The Mysterious Star” by Marta Valeria Cutrona, International School of Monza, Italy, is the Highly Commended story in the senior category of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2019.

Marta is an 11 year old from Monza who studies at The International School of Monza. She plays volleyball and she also likes to play football with her friends. Marta has 2 sisters. Her hobbies include playing volleyball with her dad and cooking with her mom.

The Mysterious Star

A winter day in 1981 a boy named Peter was born. He had light blue eyes and black hair. He loved stars more than anything. He always talked about the sky and how the stars made it shine. Every evening he looked at the sky because there was a special star that seemed to always be there for him. He thought her name was Vanessa. There was a special place where Peter looked at the Star: the window of his bedroom, sitting on his bed. He talked with her about his day and asked how hers went. He never left her.

Everybody thought he was a strange boy and made fun of him. They accused him of inventing tales. When people came to his house they saw him talking to the sky, they thought he was mad. He knew this, but he wasn’t upset because he was sure that his friendship with Vanessa was a good thing.

One night Peter went to bed but didn’t see her. “Where is she? Is she hiding?” he thought. He was so worried that night that he didn’t sleep at all.

The next morning he went to his friend, Gary. He had a telescope and Peter wanted to use it to try to find Vanessa. But to use it he had to wait till the night so in the meantime he tried to look into books and sites to see if he could find an answer to explain why Vanessa wasn’t there. When the night came he was very excited. He looked through the telescope and he looked in all directions, also where his friend had never been before. But nothing…she really seemed to have disappeared!

In the morning Peter felt really sad and especially lonely. He asked his brother where Vanessa could be. But he answered that it never existed and it’s time for him to stop saying nonsense. Peter was upset by this answer, but he already knew that nobody believed him, so it didn’t stop him. He went back to school and asked his science teacher. The teacher explained to him that when a star becomes really big there is a sort of explosion and the star becomes a supernova and that may be the reason why he could not see her. Peter was astonished! He could not believe that he suddenly lost Vanessa and didn’t even say goodbye.

For his birthday he asked for a telescope to put in front of his window to look for his friend and to study and explore the wonderful sky.

When he grew up he decided to study physics. He was really passionate of physics and in particular astronomy. He never stopped thinking about Vanessa. When he turned twenty six his dream came true! He became an astronaut! His first mission was so exciting and he loved his job… but when he was in the shuttle in space he continued looking for Vanessa, his childhood friend who never left his heart.