That night, in my tiny room above the dark Tapley school grounds,I read an email from my parents. Their moon rock work is going to keep them underground and out of communication for the next month, so they sign off with a smiley face in a test tube, a LOL and a DFTTYSIYU (Don’t Forget To Tuck Your Singlet Into Your Underpants). They’ve also sent me some spending money – in European bank notes, which I can easily exchange for Australian dollars at the Tapley Grammar Four Star Tuckshop and Foreign Currency Exchange.
As I look into the night sky, alone and feeling a little lonely, I see my ever-reliable friends, the stars. In beautiful constellations like Orion, Sirius, and Crux, they map a darkness like the deepest and most mysterious of oceans. In a way, stars remind me of people, all together but separate, each with something to offer – even the dull and distant ones, if anyone bothers to look . . . which has me wondering what I have to offer.
I’d like my talents, if I have any, to be of help to other people. I would like to be someone’s good and reliable friend. I would like to be part of the world, rather than orbit around it like Iapetus, the two-toned moon that circles Saturn. In the window’s reflection, I see my crazy haircut, leading me to think about the brilliant and brave Chase, and what might happen tomorrow.
Adventures may happen.
Disaster might strike.
Or both, neither, or something in between.
But things will happen, because the world is always turning, and we are all turning with it. And that is the indisputable truth.