By: Linna Amanda
image credit: tumblr
A girl and a
boy are sitting quietly on the backyard of the girl’s house in a small and
deserted, yet a very beautiful village. They’re sitting next to each other, and
no words come out from their mouth since at least half an hour ago, and the
solitude is already filling up the dark starry sky. It’s summer night, and the
wind is barely disturbs them, it decides to stop dancing lately. The only sound
coming is from the girl’s radio playing a soft-folk-dreamy melody from Sigur
Ros, an Icelandic band, in a very small volume. “No need for ruining the
solitude, just let it be the background music for tonight,” she thinks with her
face lifts up toward the sky as if waiting a miracle to happen. Meanwhile, the
boy is sitting next to her, reading a novel solemnly with his beautiful dark
brown eyes. They keep doing that for a few minutes, and it feels like the air
isn’t moving anymore. Until the girl notices something in the sky that makes
the air perforces to continue sweeping away. “Woah.. Look at that!” she
whispers, she doesn’t want to break the solitude herself, and gently shakes the
boy’s hand while still looking up to the sky. He looks up and finds some
shooting stars are falling into the earth. “Quick! Make a wish!” the girl
already puts her hands together and closes her eyes seriously. He looks at her
with astonishment, and somehow he can’t help but giggle. “Do you still believe
that? Nowadays? Seriously?” he looks at her smilingly. “What? I DO believe in
miracles,” she continues facing upward and pointing to the sky “JUST LOOK.” Tens
of shooting stars hurriedly fall into the earth, decorating that peaceful
summer night sky, they can’t help but amazed by that view.
“Why do you make a wish over that sad things?” asks the boy when the night sky starts
getting still again.
“What do you mean by sad things? It’s one of the most
beautiful things you can see. You can’t see meteor shower everyday.” She starts
to feel annoyed.
“Do you know the story behind those falling meteors?” the
boy says calmly.
“Of course, we learnt it in school, DUH?!” he can be this
annoying sometimes, she thinks.
“No. Not that kind of story, I mean the myth story, not the
fact.”
She gathers her emotion again, “Oh, um, no I guess.”
“Okay then, would you like to hear it?”
“Don’t make me
waiting.”
He coughs a little ,“So,
the story goes like this.”
“Once upon a
time, there was a prince in the Perseus constellation named Perses. He was the son
of King Perseus and Queen Andromeda, and the first of his six younger siblings.
He was very handsome but also beautiful at the same time, with his long gold
hair, a fair complexion, and the eyes coloured with all the colors in the
universe. He was very wise, charismatic, and brave. His only passion is to
travel around another constellations and found himself in another galaxies,
from it he got lots of friends and acquintances. Everyone who had met him liked
him, since he was so kind, smart, and charming.”
“Years and years had passed, until when
he was on his way to come back home, he decided to visit Gemini Constellation
for a while. There, he saw something that he couldn’t imagine before, the
feeling that he didn’t know existed, and it came to him just like he was struck
by lightning. He met Geminid, the princess of Gemini Constellation, and just
like the snap of a hand he fell in love. She was, indeed, very beautiful with
her dreamy eyes, which had the colour that we, human, doesn’t even know exist,
a colour that beyond our eyes could see. Her silver long hair was like the wave
of the ocean, and whenever she moved he could see as if it was dancing
naturally. Her body was perfect, but it seemed small and not very tough. Then,
he got to know her more, and Geminid was also captivated by him from the first time
they met. For an instant, they not only fell in love by their looks, but they
also found themselves matched each other. Their soul was connected easily, they
filled up each other’s soul, they knew they were meant to be, they were
soulmate. Geminid was a very delicate woman, so she could balance Perses’
short-temper. He was very brave, and Geminid who was a shy woman before started
to open up herself. Then, he took Geminids home and married her, and they
became the Prince and Princess of Perseus Constellation. Her kindness and
friendliness got her became close to Perses’ six younger siblings, which the
children of Perseus and Andromeda was called Perseid. They became really close,
and felt as if Geminid was their real sister, they loved her.”
“After they got married, Perses wanted
to show Geminid the universe, he asked her to go travelling the universe just
like he used to do. So, they traveled together, but more far than Perses had
ever been when he still traveled alone. Geminid loved beauty, she loved things
that had aesthetics, and as they traveled around the universe Geminid often
amazed by how beautiful it was. Because, she was very shy before she met
Perses, and only stayed around Gemini Constellation. Until years had passed, on
their way home they strolled along the outer and inner planets area, which is our
home, earth. When they got near earth, Geminid suddenly gasped, and struck with
amazement. While pulling Perses’ hand that she was holding, she hurriedly got
closer to earth. “Oh my, I’ve never seen such a beautiful planet like that! That
one seems so unique! Look at that, Perses! It has blue and green colour covered
the whole planets, isn’t it just looks very beautiful?” She was really amazed,
with her dreamy eyes that changed more brightly, as if humans when we saw a very cute puppy or
kitten.” Perses felt happy when he saw her like that, he couldn’t help but smiling.
“Yes, it’s very unique. We haven’t seen planet that seems so unique like that
one. I felt that somehow, there’s something different in this planet, isn’t it,
Gem?” Geminid kept smiling and staying still, but suddenly as if she realized
something, she turned to Perses and said, “I want to go there!”. “NO” Perses
quickly forbad her, “YOU CAN’T”. Geminid already know he would answer that, but
this time she couldn’t hold her pretension. “But....Per, I want to know how is
this planet looks like from inside, down there it must be very beautiful”. “I
know it would be fun living on a planet, but Gem..” he somehow felt confused.
She took Perses’ hands, hold it gently, and looked him in the eyes, “Perses, I
never ever asked you or your family for something, not even the smallest
things. It’s because I already feel happy with you, so I don’t need anything
else. But, this one, I beg you, I just want to visit that planet one time, only
one time, my Perses.” Her words made him feeling guilty, but he knew that they
couldn’t do it.“I’m sorry, Gem, but you know the rules. We, as space creatures,
the guardian of interstellars, can not disturb or get in touch with anything
that inside any planets. It’s our sacred rule, and you know as a prince and
princess we have to keep it like that.” He saw that it was the first time he
ever seen Geminid sad like that. She kept looking to earth while slightly bit
her bottom lip, but suddenly turned to Perses and hugged him tightly. “I love
you, Perses, you know that, forever”. Perses could feel something strange with
her, he knew that she said it genuinely as always, but this one, it seemed like
she was trying to say goodbye.”
“When they were hugging time stopped,
not exaggerated, but literally. In the blink of an eye, Geminid pushed him and
quickly went into earth. Perses tried to reach her, but he was too late,
Geminid already fell into earth’s atmosphere and became what we called shooting
stars. Perses couldn’t break the rule, as the son of a constellation king he
couldn’t do that for good sake, he was going to be his father’s heir. Deep
inside, he wanted to follow Geminid, but he couldn’t risk himself to go down to
earth, because he didn’t know what would happen. He was confused between his
wisdom and ego. Then, he got depressed, he cried his heart out, while standing
near the earth, weeping for his grief. He thought that maybe, Geminid would
come out from Earth and comeback to him, as his one and only soulmate. He
waited, until he decided to tell the news to his family, and came home. When he
arrived, the news made everyone heartbroken, also for his six siblings who had
loved her as real sister. Perses became a different person, his eyes that used
to shine brightly had gone away changed into darkness. His gaze was like the
black hole, reflected nothing, but pain and grief. The constellation where they
lived became gloomy without Geminid’s presence, and so was Perses’ siblings felt nearly as sad
as him, but nothing could ever sadder than himself.”
“One day, one of his siblings, Mestor,
out of nowhere had the idea maybe if they sent their troops to search Geminid
on earth they could persuade her to come back home. Perses, who was depressed
agreed with that idea, so he started
sending hundreds of troops to find her. It was summer on earth, in the middle
of July and August to be exact, when hundreds of his troops started coming to
earth. Just like what we saw lately, the meteor shower that you made a wish
before, and we called it Perseid Meteor Shower. Even though, he thought that
maybe Geminid would never came back to him, Perses selfishly kept sending his
troops, he still believe that someday Geminid will be found. So, every time
when the year comes to an end on December he would sent his troops again, and
from our scientists named it as Geminid Meteor Shower, and just like Perseid
Meteor Shower it will happens every year. Because, sadly there is one thing
they didn’t know, that Geminid had died from the very first she fell down here.
Her body was small, you know when something falls into earth, there are layers
of atmosphere in the sky, and anything will be burnt by it. That’s what happen
when a small thing, small like Geminid, a meteor fell, they just become dusts,
or in this case i can say star dusts.
So, she never even stepped on earth, because she already died on her
way. Whereas, big meteor that succeed get to earth just become a crater, they
will hardly arrive on earth’s surface, and nowadays you can see lots of craters
from that. That’s why it happens every year, because he depressedly keep trying
to find her, until now. He, Perses, up there, longing for his soulmate,
depressed by his grief of Geminid, until now. And... that’s the end of the
story”.
The girl doesn’t know what to say, a
long silence is filling up the night again. As the night gets darker, the
brighter the stars, and they silently watch and shine above them. Sometimes in
a while, one or two meteors are falling, but the girl seems to be drowning in
her thoughts. The boy is resting his vocal folds, while patiently waiting for
her respond.
“Why does painful thing like that could be so exquisite?”
“I know, right? That’s why i asked you why did you make a
wish over sad things like that?”
She turns her head to him “Thanks for the story.”
He smiles, “Anytime”.
+The whole story is originally based on the author's imagination, read the essay below for further information.
Reflective Essay (Behind The Story)
A Pseudo Sci-Fi
To read a good
short story is easy, but apparently to write one is a real hard work. Now, I
know why authors are being praised, especially those who wrote not just short
stories but also novels. One thing that is surely fun is we can put what we
think as a story, and for me it was really challenging.
This narrative
is the first time i’ve ever written a story by myself. My best friend wants to
be a writer, and sometimes I like to give her the ideas or themes. I have a
wandering mind, so I often get silly or weird ideas, and I tell my friend to
make it as short stories. I don’t like to write even though I love to read, or
to be exact I never tried before. Because, I don’t like the conjunction stuffs,
and I’m really bad at grammars. But, this task needed me to write one, and it
turned out to be fun, and also made me learn.
I got the idea
and theme from nowhere, because it was suddenly just popped up in my mind. I
was thinking what should I write, and then I remembered that I like celestial
stuffs, and I wanted the story to be kind of beautiful science-fiction. I knew
to write a sci-fi wouldn’t be easy, but I’m not going to write a super sci-fi
like Dee’s Supernova anyway, I just wanted to give some educational values. Also,
by this story, I actually wanted to show my confusion for people who still
believe in myths. Maybe, the story won’t fit well in Indonesia, because it’s
not Indonesian culture to wish upon a star, but still Indonesia has lots of
myths, and people actually take it as real important.
The challenge
was because I wanted to make a sci-fi, it means that I have to do some research.
But, for me that’s okay, because I like to do research and gain knowledges. So,
i did google to Nasa, NatGeo, and some sites, and even though I knew this one
couldn’t be a source, Wikipedia. To made the celestial elements weren’t that
hard actually, but the myths elements were, especially the greek myths. Because,
Perseus Constellation was named after the Greek God, and in this story I wanted
to imagine it as a person, I thought that I have to know the greek history a
bit. At first, I wanted to named the charater as Perseid, because it was going
to be Perseid Meteor Shower. But, it turned out that Perseid was the name of
Perseus and Andromeda’s children, and they had seven children. So, I just chose
the nearest name, Perses, and that’s why I mentioned his six siblings, to make
it as Perseid Meteor Shower. That’s why maybe you wouldn’t see the real science
stuffs in this one, because I think it would be years if someone really wanted
to make a serious sci-fi.
In the end, i
learned so much about grammar from this task, and I’m encouraged to write another narrative if I had some ideas. It was a really fun and
challenging task to do.
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