Three Days of Happiness

157
I had “seen” the stars via books and television. I knew of a sky
which contained the Summer Triangle, through which the Milky
Way ran, which looked like a sputtering of ink.
But with those points of reference, even knowing the color and
shape, I couldn’t really imagine the size of the thing.
The sight before my eyes was something much, much bigger than
what I’d imagined. It was like a falling snow whose flakes radiated a
powerful light.
I said to Miyagi beside me, “I feel like I understand why you’d want
to see this again before you died.”
“Don’t you?”, she said smugly.
We laid on the pier looking up at the stars for a long time.
We saw three shooting stars. I wondered what I’d wish for when I
saw the next one.
I didn’t have any thoughts of getting my lifespan back at this point. I
didn’t want to meet Himeno, and I didn’t want to turn back time. I
didn’t have the energy in me to start things over.
I just wanted to die here peacefully, like falling asleep - that was my
wish. Asking for any more than that would be not knowing my
place.
I didn’t even need to think about what Miyagi would wish for. Her
wish was to quit her observer job - so she would be an invisible
woman no longer.
Her existence ignored by everyone, with only her subjects to