Dancing Among Stars

• Cameron Duncan, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2018

Everyone, always so loud.
So closely pact with everyone in the schoolyard, the sky cloaked by dark clouds.
Jumbled strident speech resounding through my ears, like waves crashing. Friends, each talking louder than the other, as if it were a competition.
We're so different like we are on different planets, and I feel I don't belong on this one.
I flop onto my back, submerged in my duvet, staring at the ceiling.
I can barely hear the muffled arguments from my parents downstairs.
My eyes close as darkness cloaks.
They open to waving ultramarine grass all around. Slim, straight forest trees stand firm, almost hiding the deep wash of azure that paints the sky, stars peeking through.
Blue hour.
In the dulcet silent forest, you can hear a butterfly’s wings' beat.
I got to my knees as I watch the disturbed fireflies swirl around.
Where was I?
I was still in my pyjamas.
The forest seemed to stretch out forever.
The rain drenched dirt under my toes squelched.
I follow my feet forward.
A wide clearing stood before me.
schools of small vibrant fish danced among stars as if gravity was nothing.
This must be a dream, though it seems so real. If this was a dream I never want to wake.
A smile crept upon my face.
In the middle of the clearing an old spiral staircase lead up into the clouds above.
I walked up to it stepping onto the old steel steps.
I wonder where it leads.
Stepping upon each step ascending higher into the sky until I was above the layer of clouds.
A man sat on the clouds with his back towards me, casting a fishing rod into the sky.
I clutch the railing, as I cautiously place my foot onto the clouds.
After all this is a dream.
The clouds hold firm underneath my foot. I step further out to the man.
"Hello!" I called, then "Hello?" again, but to no avail.
The moon gleamed upon the old man's face.
"What are you catching?" I cried.
"You," he croaked, to my surprise.
"What?"
"It's your turn, to escape your world," he said.
"Wait, then what is this world?"
"Some call it the upside-down, Atlantis, or wonderland, but it is simply Morphium, the world we wish but never want.
It's where all dreams go," he replied.
"How did I even get here?"
"Everyone winds up here eventually, whether it be down a rabbit hole, or through a dream," he replied.
I look up to the sky as fish swam above.
"It's beautiful," I say in awe. "I wish I could stay."
"You can, if you want. You can stay here forever dancing among stars, or you can go back to reality, but you can't go in between."
"I can't stay, I have a..."
It's silly to even consider it, I belong in my world.
Don't I?
Which one should I choose?
Which one did I want?
Which world would you chose?