Author: t-me!
The stars stood bright in a moonless night. He watched his breath form into mist. He wasn't too cold yet, still hot from the effort it had taken to climb up on to the roof.
He could hear his father's clumsy movements downstairs and occasionally a shouted curse. He ignored them.
They lived a small way from the city in a nice area. It was quite at this time of night & the street lights were far enough away so that he had a good view of the stars.
He liked to watch the stars even though he could never get his head around all those complicated names and numbers. He only knew a few constellations, but that wasn't why he liked watching them.
From here anything seemed possible. It was like, if he lay here long enough, he could fall into them. He had dreams of flying up there and look at the world far away and he would never have to come back, he would always be safe.
A loud curse from his father downstairs shook him out of his comfortable thoughts. "Where are you boy" His rough voice came from directly below him.
He was in his room!
He held his breath. His father couldn't get him up here, even if he knew were he was. Soon the sound of his footsteps moved away. He breathed a sigh of relief and went back to looking at the stars.
It was getting colder now but he barely noticed.
He watched the lights of a plane pass overhead and imagined what kind of people would be up there where they were going and why.
He smiled to himself as he imagined everything from a cranky family with crazy kids coming back for a holiday to a spy with secret files he had stolen.
Again a noise interrupted him, a loud thump.
He listened, there was nothing. He smiled.
It was safe to come down now, his father must have passed out.
He struggled to climb in the window to his room, got changed and went to bed.
He fell asleep and dreamed of flying in the stars.