It's been a good day at my friend's house, but now it's time to go.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" she asks, "It's really late,"

"I'll be fine," I assure her.

I push a button on the elevator and got down to floor one.

I rummage through my bag and dug out the keys to unlock my bike, then I knelt down and work at the lock until it clicks open.

I climb onto my bike and ride out onto the street.

Stars spill over head, lighting the way. I remember the stories about people in the civil war who followed the North Star and escaped.

The stars seemed to protect me as I rode onto another street, they seemed to move with me as I rode forward.

I drew in a breath, the stars were like the protectors of heaven.

The night air was cool and crisp against my skin, I let out a sigh, turning a corner and onto Marigold Road.

I suddenly remember a paragraph from Wendelin Van Drannen's Wild Bird.

Wow. Look at that sky.

I know that the stars are suns, billions of miles away, but I've never been able to wrap my head around that. Besides, I want them to be stars. Things to wish upon. Things that make dreams come true. Things with magical powers on the ends of fairy wands.

... I look back up at the sky, take in the stars again, the deep endless universe. With all the nights I've been out in the desert, why haven't I ever really looked up like this? There is nothing more beautiful than this sky.

"Star light, star bright," I whisper, wishing I could change things. But before the words have a chance to come out, a star shoots across the sky.

I want to be someone who remembers the stars, even in the daylight.

I want to be someone who looks up.

I grin and look up at the sky again, the stars stretch out in all directions, reaching out to protect everyone looking up at them.

Yes, I want to be someone who remembers the stars, even in the daylight, the stars are always there. Maybe not that bright, but still.

They gave me hope.

Hope and happiness.

And then suddenly, unexpectedly, tickling me from inside, I recognize a long-lost feeling. The one I looked for whenever I got stoned or drunk. The one I tried to corner by outsmarting Anabella, my parents, Meadow. The one that kept drifting past me, promising me I would find it right... over... there.

And here, now, tickling the pit of my stomach, pinging to life in my heart, the feeling has found me? I'm filthy, alone, in the desert, making food in the dirt, and somehow, against everything I've said and thought and expected, it's found me?

I draw in another breath and take in the scenery.

The stars, they won't ever disappear.

They will always be there for us.

And knowing that -owning that- makes me feel... unstoppable.

It makes me feel like I can do anything. Because maybe in a way, I can.

Anything, and absolutely everything is possible under the stars.

Everything I've wanted to happen, I couldn't believe it, how come I've never looked up at the sky like this? How come I've never noticed?

Light pollution. That was why.

Back were I live, it was impossible to see the stars like this.

But, here. In the countryside, in all the dirt and dust.

I can see the stars.

I pull over next to a meadow.

I couldn't believe it, this is the simplest happiness.

So simple, yet so bright, and so strong.

This is who I want to be, I want to be someone who feels the stars and remembers the simplest happiness.