Names Among the Stars

by Pyrodox

    Virgo leaned wearily against her old pitchfork, deciding that the day’s work was done. For the countless time she observed the stars as they formed in the fading sky, vaguely aware that there were people among them, sometimes empathically aware and wondering what those people might be up to as she tended her farm in her insignificant corner of the galaxy. Her once beautiful coat, matching in color with her eyes and mane, was prematurely graying, with some small patches gone as a result of the scars she carried from the Fog Virus outbreak years ago that caused her to regret the absence of a medical ship. Letting out one of many sighs, she resolved to walk up the hill to her humble home with a comforting hot meal to enjoy.

    As she crossed the gate into her small front yard, she sensed eyes on her. Multiple invisible watchers. Perhaps she could stand guard with a shotgun in case any trouble arrived. She smelled something off inside her house and searched it. She found her answer outside hovering above the oft-observed grotto she kept by the cliff’s edge. The figure must not have been a local: her robes, though, humble enough, were too clean. Also, the figure’s frame was too well-fed to pass for even some of the more Rubenesque locals. And of, course, it had a prominent shark’s tail.

    “This is private property,” she said firmly after she ventured out to the small garden. 

    “I know,” replied a gravelly but articulate female voice whose accent Virgo did not recognize. The face that turned to her from behind its veil was impossibly thin in context. Its eyes pierced right through Virgo with minimal expression. A row of cruel sharp teeth lined a long, pointed muzzle. 

     “What do you want?”

     “I have already found what I want here.” The woman looked out toward the horizon. “This is such a small world. One of those worlds where people are just born and live, completely unknown to anybody. Most of the time. Sometimes, though, someone sends some help. Humanitarian work…medical ships. Sometimes people are born under their watch. And then someone writes their names down. They go off and disappear somewhere, too. No different from anybody else except they are also names on paper, a brief description, and that’s it…just a name on a paper that says there is someone, somewhere…”

     “I wish that ship came back,” Virgo choked.

     The mystery woman regarded her with unexpected pity. “I am sorry, but fate led me here to you. Information that was my business drew me to what was not…” When Virgo ventured to raise her eyes, the woman appeared uncertain, as if she wanted to tell her something. After some apparent struggle, the stranger walked over and handed her a small box from which a promising clink emanated. “You can reach those stars, if you want,” glancing outward. “If you want…If you want my advice…don’t look for more pain. You don’t deserve it.” 

      Virgo stared in amazement at the money in the box as the woman passed by her on her way out. Then she faced at the tragically small mound that had apparently captivated her visitor’s attention.

      The coarse voice spoke again.

      “I apologize for any discomfort my presence may have caused. I wish you the best of luck…Miss Passadar.”