FLASH FICTION CONTEST #4

 I became Stardust when I was a kid. I looked up at the night sky and wondered if I could tap-dance on the stars. The man who raised me told me I could. Stardust, he would call me. 

Now I was watching the tail lights of his decrepit car disappear in the night. 

Perhaps if I knew this was the last time I’d see him, I would’ve raced after him on my aching little legs, shouting goodbye as my voice rang shrill through the darkened woods.

Maybe if I knew that his farewell was a bitter allusion to reality, I would’ve begged for him to come back, cries lost under the grumbling engine and the birds who bid the world goodnight. 

I’ll be there when you dance on the stars, he’d promised.

How naive I was to believe him.