TheBanyanTree: WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR

[Sharon Mack]

I wrote the following piece as a birthday gift for my 11 year old grandson, Dustin.  He is a wonderful boy but has problems in school and is at the beginning of a difficult time in any child's life,...puberty!  I wrote this hoping to encourage him in his walk.  It will be sitting next to his breakfast cereal this morning.  I hope he realizes the love behind it.

WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR

He couldn't sleep.  He threw his leg outside of the covers.  Maybe he should get up.  Lying there quietly trying to make a decision, he heard the alarm clock ticking.  Hmph, he'd never noticed that before.  He looked out into the semi darkness of his room and saw the neon green light of his alarm clock.  It was 3:00AM.  

Climbing out of the covers he brought himself up to the window and firmly planted his elbows on the sill.  He wished it were summer so he could open the window and hear the night sounds.  Folding his arms onto the sill he rested his chin on his arms and began to think.  It had been a horrible day.  He had hoped his new school would change things, that he would be happier there with new friends and new teachers, but it had turned out to be the same old, same old.  He brought his head up sharply and shook away the thoughts.  No time for that.  He had to get to sleep.  Taking one last look at the night, he noticed the stars and marveled at their brightness.  They seemed to twinkle right at him, brighter than he'd ever seen them before.  He stared at them, hard, wishing he could float away and touch one.

Wishing!  He thought about his Mom and remembered how she had sung to him about stars and wishes when he was little.  He tried to remember the words.  Twinkle, twinkle, something like that*.hmmmm.  His thoughts moved ahead to the wish part.  Suddenly his head filled with her voice.  It was clear and vibrant.  It reminded him of the stars.  He could hear every word she sang.  He listened ever so closely.  He didn't want to miss a note.

"Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder where you are.  Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky....."

The singing faded.  Then he remembered another star song.  This one was more recent.  The words came more clearly.

"When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are...."

He wished she would come in and sing to him again.  He wished he could wish upon a star and have it come true.  He wished he could ...he wished...he wished...he thought his brain would burst with the wishing.

"Wish what, Dustin?  What?"

The voice came softly, almost a whisper, almost a breeze.  A voice on the wind, except there was no wind.

Dustin got quiet and listened for it again.  Was he crazy?  Was he imagining things now?  He should get to sleep, but he just couldn't leave the "wish" thought.  He wasn't ready to give it up.  He wanted to wish upon a star, just like the song said.  He knew he was probably too old for that stuff now, but he wanted to do it anyway.

"I wish," he began aloud, "I wish.....I wish......I were a tough guy like Hank,"  the last words came out in a rush.  "Then no one would dare to bother me or make fun of me again.  Then everyone would be afraid not to be my friend.  Then I could show them.  Ha!  Yeah, that's ....I want to be like Hank!"  He smiled at his smart wish.

"Like Hank?"  The voice whispered again.  "Like Hank?  Are you sure Dustin?  You want to be like Hank, huh?"

"Hey, who said that?"  Dustin almost yelled it but remembered the sleeping house.  "Who are you?  Why are you in my thoughts?  Yeah, I want to be like Hank.  He's tough; he's cool.  So what's wrong with being like Hank?  I can tell you think it's a bad idea.  Why?  What's wrong with that wish?"  His heart was pounding now.  He was listening hard.

The wind rushed softly by his face.  He could feel it and then it spoke.   "If you were like Hank, you would hate your mother.  You would be angry most of the time.  You would grow up and hurt someone and go to jail.  Is that what you want?  To go to jail?  To hate your mother?  Didn't she sing the songs to you?" And with that the songs played again in his head, the music so sweet it misted his eyes.  His mother's voice sang the words with wondrous clarity and beauty.  He listened hard not wanting to miss one single note.

"No, " Dustin said softly.  "I don't want to be like Hank.  He's too tough."



Dustin listened, but the quiet filled the room.  He looked to the stars again.  What to wish?  He had to think.  He couldn't let the game go now.
"I....I....ah.....I want to be like Briton.  I want to be smart and get straight A's.  Then my mom will be happy and the teachers will like me.  They won't have to yell at me anymore.  I'll be perfect like Briton."

Whoosh!  The sound the voice made as he whispered Dustin's name again.  Whoosh!  "Dustin, do you know Briton?  Do you know he has no mother at home?  Did you know that is all his father cares about are his grades, that he'll grow up to go into his father's business and though financially successful he'll never marry, he'll never have a family?  His creativity has been stomped down.  He'll never know what it is to paint a picture, to write a story, to play a horn or a drum.  He has little understanding except for the technical aspects of these things."

Dustin thought of his shiny brass horn sitting in its case.  The horn he seldom practiced.  He thought about his own father, whom he didn't know but knew he was an artist and a drummer.  He thought about his Uncles and his Great Uncle Ed who were artists and musicians.

"It's in your genetic structure, Dust.  It's a part of who you are."

"But I'm so disorganized.  Not like my Mom.  I can't think of everything and even when I do my body doesn't want to do it.  It gets lazy, I guess."

"Your mother grew into organization.  She had to learn.  You can, too.  It's up to you Dustin."  The voice whooshed again and went silent.

Dustin looked to the sky.  He was thinking hard, harder than he ever had.  He had one more chance.  Three wishes right?  That was the formula.  He screwed up on the other two.  He had to think.

Suddenly he saw a great light in the sky.  It burned so bright that the other stars momentarily disappeared and then it crossed the sky and headed toward the earth.  As Dustin watched the falling star, he again heard his mother's voice, but this time she was humming.  There were no words but the tune seemed vaguely familiar.

"My mother.......I hear her humming but I don't know the words."  

"That is because she sings your man song and the words have not 'become' yet."  Whoosh, the voice said his name.  " You will create them as you grow, as you become the man that you are meant to be.  Then she will sing your song to the stars and the heavens will know who you are......Dustin!"  The voice whooshed again.

This time when Dustin heard the whoosh of his name he looked to the skies and made his third and final wish.  "I want," he stopped for a moment to make sure he got it right.  "I want, " and then from a well deep inside that he didn't even know he had came the words, "I want to be the best person I know how to be.  I want to learn the things that will make me that person.  I want to open my heart and love my family and choose well in friendship.  I want to make my mother proud but most of all I want to be proud of myself!"

Suddenly he felt tired.  So tired he couldn't move.  He laid his head down on his arms and closed his eyes.

*********************

Dustin never knew how he got beneath his covers nor did he understand why he did not feel tired.  He just knew that this day was the beginning of the rest of his life and the beginning of the words to be written in his man song.  He couldn't wait to hear his mother sing them.