Highly Commended Story - The Falling Star

“The Falling Star” by Tran Duc Manh, Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School, Singapore, is the Highly Commended story in the senior category of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2020.

The Falling Star

One night, Senku, a ten-year-old boy, was with his mother on the balcony of their house admiring the beautiful night sky. The chilly night wind gently swept past Senku as he stared at the dark sky filled with beautiful glittering stars. Chirping sounds of the crickets can be heard from the forest behind their house. Suddenly, a small bright line shot across the sky.

“That’s a falling star Senku, hurry up and make a wish! Your wish might come true!” Senku’s mother exclaimed. After hearing what his mother had told him, Senku put his palms together and closed his eyes. “I wish that I can meet a star and play with him!” Senku whispered silently. It soon got late and so Senku and his mother decided to go to bed.

“WOOOOSSHHHH” the sound of something falling down from the sky woke Senku up from his sleep. Frustrated for being abruptly woken up, Senku decided to get out of his bed and what had caused the commotion. Senku looked outside of his window and saw something shining brightly from the forest behind his house. Being the curious and playful child that he is, Senku decided to go have a look.

Senku crept out of his house and headed into the forest, the deeper he went the brighter the light shone and soon enough, Senku was in front of a bright yellow star. It took a while for Senku to adjust to the brightness but soon, Senku found himself looking at a boy who is around the same size as him. The boy looked like any other boy in Senku’s town except that he is shining brightly like the stars in the skies. The boy turned around and the two boys looked at each other.

“Hello, my name is Perseus and I am falling star from the sky. I have come down to the earth to play with you!” exclaimed Perseus joyfully. Upon hearing this, Senku was on the top of the world. His wish had come true. “Hi my name is Senku, nice to meet you!” said Senku.

Both the boys played catching at the playground near Senku’s house until it was almost dawn.

“Sorry, it’s almost dawn and I have to go back home.” Perseus said sadly. Disappointed, Senku looked at Perseus with his sad puppy eyes and said, “It’s alright, can you tell me where do you live so I can come over to your place and play with you one day? If my mom let me of course.”

“Sure!” said Perseus as he pointed up at the dark blue sky, “I live high up in the sky in space, you can come and visit if you work hard and do well in your studies!” Senku’s eyes lit up. “Alright! I will work really hard and I promise that we will meet again!”

Perseus waved at Senku as he flew back up into the sky that was soon turning light blue which signaled that it was dawn. Soon after, Senku woke up from his dream. “Yes, we will meet again Perseus.” Senku told himself as he looked up at the glow-in-the-dark stars that were pasted on the ceiling of his room.

From that day onwards, inspired by his dream to meet Perseus again, Senku studied hard in school and got good grades. Every night, Senku would look at the stars in the sky from his balcony, put his hands together and closed his eyes and wish that he could go to space to meet Perseus again.

“Launching... TEN…NINE…EIGHT…SEVEN...

SIX...FIVE...FOUR...THREE...TWO...ONE.” The space rocket roared as it shot into the sky. Senku closed his eyes and prayed as he opposed the force of gravity. After 15 minutes, Senku opened his eyes and himself in space.

“Nice to meet you again, Perseus” said Senku as he looked at the bright stars in front of him.

“Nice to meet you too.”