All the Stars Die

"Where does the wind go?" She asked him, her eyes shining with wonder. "Why doesn't it blow the stars away like leaves, scattering them across the heavens?" she looked at him and grabbed his hand. "So constant they are! And yet, always moving."

She stopped talking, and then moved her gaze back to the stars. A comfort for her. She did not look at the moon.

"They are constant, in their motion," he told her, "but all the stars die."

She kept her focus on the stars, dropping his hand as she moved away from him to the other side of the balcony. He continued talking, "They may die after one final blaze of fire, or they could just quietly go out like tiny candles. You could say blown out by the wind." He did not think of her happiness.

"Oh! Enough already of your horrid astronomy! Is nothing constant anymore? The moon once was, but even you proved that it too would slowly slip away!"

"Nothing is constant."

She leaned over the rail of the balcony a bit so she could study the moonlight-covered landscape. She was high enough up so that she could see in all directions easily. The trees were tall, and she looked down at them. The grass below seemed unblemished. The water in the narrow creek was just a tiny ribbon. It all seemed magic in the moonlight.

At least that is how it seemed to her. There seemed to be something special about the light. But then she remembered.

'It will go away,' She thought, 'The magic moon will become dim, as it drifts further and further away. Its light will be that of a star then, and it must die.' She clutched the fabric of her dress with one hand, while she held onto the balcony rail with her other.

She turned on him angrily. "Is it true nothing is constant? Is it true that nothing will last? From what you are saying, all light will leave, and then the darkness must last forever. Every single light of happiness must be extinguished for things to remain constant?" Narrowing her eyes, she faced him, challenging his ideas.

"That is what I have learned, that is what the sky has told me." He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Mathematically it makes sense."

She turned away from him and faced the sky once more. This time she focused on the moon.

"You are telling me that the sky in all its glory does not give you hope? You can look at it an honestly say we are all going to hell?" She looked at him once more. "Can you tell me that all of this will cease to exist?"

"Well, mathematically we have proven" He began to repeat, shifting uncomfortably. Turning from him, she looked once again to the sky. She did not turn back to him, not even after he had gone, leaving her standing there like a statue, staring at the sky.