Once Upon A Time...

ONCE UPON A TIME, there lived an ordinary Boy who longed to see the world. He lived in an ordinary town with its ordinary people. If you turned left on the corner Sunset Boulevard, there lies Ms. Brown and her flower shop. Across the street was the Fisherman’s market, where almost all the local men earned their money selling what they caught for the day. It was a lovely town, but he longed to see more.
The Boy sat on the dock watching all the fishermen on their boats trying to catch a fish to bring home. He was thinking - for that was all he did these days. Oh how he longed to see a glimpse of a city, maybe look down at the world from a skyscraper. But how? He finally thought of an idea. “I know,” thought the Boy, “I’ll just drive my car on the road leading to the forest until I find another town! Maybe they can give me directions to wherever my heart currently aches for.” He stood up, and took off for his house to find his car and embark on his new idea.
He climbed into his car, excited for whatever was to come. He never has been out of this town for all of his 17 years of life - never. The Boy nervously (the good kind of nervous, where you get butterflies trapped inside your stomach, wondering for what is to come) got to the road leading into the thick forest. “Well, here it is,” he said to himself and started to drive to his hope and wonder.
Exactly one hour later, it had become dark outside. The sky had painted a perfect shade of dark blue. The Boy was still driving, hoping, on the road in the forest. He finally saw a streetlight at the end of the road. “Here…here it is. This is what I had been looking for” he said to himself. A smile creped upon his face, tugging at the corners of his mouth. But slowly the smile had faded, turning into a frown – the kind that makes other people sad and frown too – when he saw Ms. Brown’s flower shop on the corner of Sunset Boulevard. He had ended up driving to the same town! But how was that possible? It was a very strange thing.
The Boy had no hours of sleep that night.
The Boy was sitting on the dock, yet again, wondering of last night’s strange occurrence. If driving did not work then how was he to get out of this worn old town? He sat and thought of a new idea, a new plan to embark upon. The clock’s hands had turned and turned until he finally thought of an idea. “I’ve got it,” he said to no one in particular, “I’ll go in a boat and row my way out!” Then he jumped up, and ran to wherever the nearest boat was.
“Where are you going, boy?” had said one of the fisherman coming back after one long day’s work.
“Well, sir, I’m trying to row to another town.” the Boy had said back to the fisherman.
The fisherman didn’t understand though, why would anyone want to get out of this town? It had anything anyone needed to survive and it was a lovely town, it would be nonsense if anyone had not agreed so. “Why would you go and do that, are you crazy my boy?” the fisherman responded to his shocking response.
“Well, of course not,” said the Boy “but there must be something more than this town, and I am determined to find that out.”
The fisherman had scoffed, surely the boy had been out of his mind to be thinking such foolish thoughts – yes that was what he was, a fool and nothing more.
“Boy, you are a fool, there is simply nothing more to find out” the fisherman had said, and left not letting the Boy respond to his thoughts. The Boy had shrugged, not letting the fisherman’s rude words affect him. He climbed into the boat and grabbed one of the oars. He started to row the boat deeper into the water, when suddenly the boat had stopped. He tried to row further into the water, but strangely it would not let him. “How odd,” the Boy had thought to himself as he rowed back to shore.
The Boy had yet again no hour of sleep that night.
The Boy was sitting on the dock – that was all he ever was these days - thinking of how to get out of this town, but no ideas had come to mind. It had become dark again, and he was ready to go home when suddenly he sees something bright move across against the night sky. He sat there and looked at the strange bright thing again when he suddenly realized it was a shooting star. Strange, but beautiful. He had never seen one of those before. Only heard of through stories, stories of how if you make a wish upon one, it would come true. Silly, the Boy would’ve thought in a normal circumstance, to make a wish upon a star. But he was desperate, and desperation doesn’t let you think quite as clearly as you normally would. He closed his eyes tight, hugging his knees, as he thought his wish. “I wish to get out of this town.”
As he opened his eyes the star had disappeared from his view, leaving only the nighttime sky. As the Boy walked home, he realized that the shooting star was the only thing to escape from this town.
Each day from there on, at twilight, you could see the Boy sitting on the dock staring up at the sky waiting for the star to come. The towns folk all called him a fool for him to think the star would come back, but he stayed there. Day after day, he stayed.
One night, mysteriously the Boy had died in his sleep. His parents were so very sad, even if the towns folk were not so. He was after all, a fool and nothing more. But he had died with a smile on his face, as he finally got his wish. The Boy had finally escaped from this worn old town.

FIN.