Hidden Sparkles

"It was starting to disappear behind the horizon where I saw it for the first time. I first thought it wanted to play peek-a-boo with me again but my hope started to fade as the land got darker and darker. I tried to reach my arm out to it, telling it to come back. It didn't work. I then tried chasing it down but it was too far away. All I could do is stare helplessly as it disappeared behind the horizon again, the one hiding place I could never reach."

"The whooole land got darker, and darker, and darker. And then, the last bit of light shined to me, just like when I saw it for the very first time."

"And then it was gone…"

"Black and gray filled the land once again."

"My first friend… just vanished like that. I was in shock at the moment. I was now left once again in the darkness, after all the fun I had with him. I looked around me: no more sparkles. I know I've exaggerated how special my homeland was but..."

"E-xaa?" Sprinkles tries to repeat.

"Oh, to exaggerate means to say something is much more special than it truly is," I answer. "I've exaggerated how wonderful my homeland was with the Sun. But to be fair, I was just a naïve little one. Every single sign of beauty and brightness, even if it was just a spark of light meant so much to me back then. And… to see it all just go away like that…" I'm trying to picture in my mind how I felt at that moment. "I was… so sad. I didn't cry but I was very very sad..."

"And so, the second looong night of my life had begun. No longer did I roll around in the dust, no longer did I draw on my crater-pups. I didn't even move further in my journey. There I lay, feeling sorry for myself. I curled my body up into a little ball and just stayed there. My crater friends were probably having the same thoughts because they also stayed still, just like how I found them before. Swallowed by the darkness. No light to guide us... No point of anything..."

"An hour passed."

"Then two."

"Then three."

"Gosh if you would only know how long the nights were on the Moon… You probably got the idea from earlier when I played in the day: a very long time."

"Moona, exactly how long are the days and nights on the Moon?" Fred asks.

"Oh, well a full day is almost 30 whole Earth days!"

"30?!" Joe cries out in surprise. "Wow…"

"You got that right. Let's just say I had a hard time adjusting myself when I first came to Earth. Hehe, everything just comes and goes so fast!"

"So did you just lay there for 30 days on the Moon?" Roary asks.

"No, silly! I would go crazy if I did that which I'm glad I didn't. But I still moped there for quite a long time. I mean, it just wasn't the same drawing on boring dark grey sand and exploring just to see the same darkness all around me. Moon fairies are good at seeing in the dark but even I have a limit. All the peaks, the ridges, and the seas were much easier to see with the Sun's help. "

"With nothing to do, I tried my very best to come up with something. But there weren't a lot of options. All I have is the dull moon dust, my crater-pups which at the moment were nothing but holes, and… the sky…"

"Finally snapping out of my grumpy state, I took a first real good look at the sky without the Sun. I was not prepared for what I saw at that moment; there were hundreds of twinkling beads scattered all around! Alllll over the night sky! There wasn't a single inch that isn't filled in with at least one tiny sparkle! Now Blue, I'm sure you know by now that the Sun is a star."

"Uh-huh!" she answers.

"It is?" Sprinkles asks Blue. "How do you know?"

"Before you came, I sang Twinkle-twinkle Little Star in this playroom right after Bluestock. Then 2 stars appeared with me and Boogie-woogie and sang along with us. They're the ones that told me."

"Ohhhh…" he responds.

"Mmm-hmm!" I agree. When the Sun was up, I was too focused on it and the sparkly land that I forgot to even pay attention to the other stars in the sky. I only paid attention to the Sun because it was the biggest and the brightest- well, in my point of view- beacon in the whooole starry sky! I felt its warmth and joy the moment it rose. As for the other stars, well let's just say each one was too small and hidden to draw in my short attention span. But now, there was nothing to distract me. I gazed upon the sky, in awe and wonder, of what each tiny sparkle could be. Were they the Sun scattered into little pieces? Were they remains of the Sun's beautiful sparkles? I wondered and wondered and wondered."

"I think this is when I started to learn about looking carefully. There are many things in the world that are hidden by something much bigger and brighter than they ever could! But once that object is taken away, I guess that's when you get to realize their hidden sparkles. We're all drawn to things that are the best of the best! That is just our nature. I just think it's nice if something- or someone else would also get the spotlight for once. I guess everyone wants to be noticed in a way. After all, it seems like there's no point of our painting inside of us if no one would even take a peek."

"I would know… all these stars were probably sad that I wouldn't pay attention to them. They were helping the Sun all along, even though only a little. But you would be surprised how much difference even something so little can make, especially if there are a lot of them! I like to think of them as numbers. Every number can be added to each other to get a bigger number, no matter how small the first number is. In the end, even a number like 1 can add itself up to 100, if you have enough patience to do so, hee-hee. But it's true… And knowing this made me feel a lot better! I was much quieter during this time since I mostly just looked up but I was still quite pleased. I even continued my doodles on the ground. It was still quite dull but I didn't care at the moment, just because I was happy. I even started drawing with a new shape I've learned: a star."