Copyright © 1997 Miron Schmidt.
Revision 5.
Written in 1995.

``Calm down now boy, calm down. Everything's gonna be alright.''

``Alright? I can't... I can't... don't you see it? The world, I mean?''

``So what about it? It's gonna change and...''

``Change! Don't you see? Don't you... don't you just care? Some day you're gonna die, and then everything you've ever said, you've ever done will die with you!''

``Sure boy, just calm down now. That's the way it is, now isn't it?''

``It's... it's turning, and every time I look up there, a star dies. A star! Do you know how big a star is?''

``Well, I...''

``Everytime I look up, one of them dies! Every time I breathe, tens of billions of people die! There are people there, you know.''

``Hell, are you gonna stop breathing then? There's nothing you can do!''

``One day I'm gonna be old, and my bones'll start creaking and my heart'll start aching, and I'm... I, I don't wanna grow old. I don't wanna die!''

``Everybody must die. That's how the Lord created man.''

``What's the point then? About living? Why do we live at all if we're gonna die one day?''

``The Lord knows...''

``No he doesn't! I've been asking him and he didn't answer! He's just an old man who's made a mistake once, and now he's stuck just as we are!''

``Well boy, just stop weeping now.''

And the stars are slowly turning overhead, and every once and again one of them stops gleaming.