[Concrit Welcome]

If you wish upon a star, then a miracle is about to start.

Leo stood alone inside the circular dome-shaped room. It was a long day in the observatory, and he still needs to do routine recordings of the upcoming meteor shower. Forcing himself not to fall asleep on the desk, he approached the telescope at the center.

He had always believed there was something uniquely mesmerizing about the night sky, which was the reason he wanted to study astronomy. But these midnight observations that could’ve perfectly been automatically recorded were a real test on his nerves.

A faint flash in the night sky. The meteor shower had started.

More visible dots flickered from the lens on the telescope, and just as he had feared, the faint voices were back again.

There was another reason why Leo hated being alone in the observatory at night. Ever since he was a child, these whispers had accompanied him whenever there was a meteor shower. His therapist had called them harmless hallucinations, but it was nights like these that almost convinced Leo there was something deeper.

If he was more awake, he would pause everything and take his medication. But he was too tired, he wasn’t thinking. In between one breath and the next, the button to open the observatory roof was clicked.

The roof slowly bloomed open like moonflower petals, and a cold breeze trickled through the gaps. Perhaps it was his sleepiness, perhaps there was no reason, but the voices seemed clearer that night. Most were still nonsense noise, but he was able to make sense of a few of the loudest ones.

“I wish for the night to be not as dark.” A breathy voice said.

“I hope that one day the forest would be safer.” This one sounded like a young woman.

“I wish the village won’t starve just because of a bad harvest anymore.” An old man’s hoarse and deep voice echoed.

“I wish the neighboring kingdom wouldn’t attack us anymore.”

“I wish there are enough books for everyone.”

“I wish to no longer worry about floods or hurricanes.”

“I wish to understand the heavens.”

“I wish to be reunited with my loved ones.”

“I wish my voice to be heard.”

The meteors crashed down into the atmosphere one by one, etching faint white lines throughout the sky. Leo listened to every one of the wishes from long ago, that had come true in one way or another, long after the ones who made the wishes had passed.

He was in that dreamy state again, at that field trip in second grade, laying on the grass outside the tent. He muttered the same words he said back then in a shaky voice: “One day, I will touch the stars.”

In the not-so-far distant above, the international space station made another rotation around the earth.