Too Many Stars

Too Many Stars

by

Vivian Doolittle

“Oh my god, there’s another one!” Vicki shouted into the phone. “I must be seeing them everywhere because I just noticed one the other day, and now that I’m thinking about them, I keep seeing them. Is this a thing? I mean, do people really think that enhances the appearance of their homes?”

She was speaking to her sister as she drove home from work. Her green Subaru Outback was pristine and not polluted with anything so vulgar as a bumper sticker. Nor was Vicki speaking into her cell phone. No, that would be against the law. Vicki synched her phone with the car so that she could talk hands free.

Her need for order and symmetry was offended by what she was seeing.  

“I don’t know,” Marie said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one. Now I’m going to have to pay attention.”

The thing that so bothered Vicki was a large, brown, metal, five-pointed star that was placed on the outside of some houses. Sometimes the star would be above the garage, sometimes on the front siding someplace, and, occasionally, Vicki would see the star placed on the outside of the porch railing.

Today, she saw one of the stars on a nearby house that had been previously hidden by trees. When the trees dropped their leaves in the fall, she had a good view of the home beyond, and there was a star.

“Well, I gotta go,” Marie said. “I’m working tonight.”

“Oh, OK. Talk to you later.” Vicki disconnected the call. She drove this same route to and from work every day and, to this point, had counted seven stars on homes along the way.

She pulled into the driveway and removed her purse and laptop from the passenger seat. A small gray cat with four white paws appeared in front of her and began to rub against her legs. Vicki smiled and picked it up.

“Hi, Snork,” she said. “Time for dinner, I know.” She carried the cat into the kitchen and set her on the floor. She found the dry cat food in the cupboard and filled Snork’s bowl.

As she set about preparing dinner, Vicki couldn’t stop thinking about the stars. The one she spied on the trip home today was the seventh one now. What could they mean?

After dinner, she sat down in her recliner and searched large metal outdoor star in her phone’s browser and was amazed by the number of results. Those silly stars were inexpensive, easy to come by and, apparently, quite popular. They came in different sizes and colors, too.

“I guess that solves the mystery, Snork. Those stupid stars are just some dumb outdoor decorations. It beats plastic flamingoes, I guess.”

But her comment to the cat was dishonest. Vicki still felt something was off about the stars. They were compelling, and she wanted to know why. It wasn’t like her to obsess about things that had no effect on her, but it was like her to appreciate clean lines and order. In her opinion, the stars disrupted those things.

On Saturday morning, Vicki had a date for shopping and coffee with her old friend, Sara. Sara lived in the same small town and also commuted into the city to work every day.

As Vicki drove, she kept her eyes on the road. She knew which houses on this part of the trip had stars, and she did not want to be distracted by them today. Eventually, she turned off her regular route to town and into Mountain View Estates, where Sara lived.

She pulled into the driveway and after carefully putting the car into park, picked up her phone. She sent a quick, “I’m here” text, and soon Sara was coming out the front door.

“Hi,” Sara said as she opened the car door and got in.

“Morning. I hope I’m not late.”

“No, quite the contrary. You’re right on time.” Sara set about putting on her seatbelt.

“Where to, first?”

“Let’s hit Starbucks first and then head for the mall.”

“Sounds good to me.” Vicki backed out of the driveway.

Over coffee, they chatted about their jobs and other mundane things. She thought about broaching the subject of the stars several times but decided against it. She wanted to just have fun, and this nagging annoyance felt as though it was becoming obsessive.

The two women stayed at the mall long enough to be ready for lunch, and they had a great day together. On the way home, Vicki noticed that a house a few blocks from Sara’s sported a star.

She slowed the car. “See that?” she asked and pointed toward the big, garish star on the side of the house.

           “See what?” Sara asked.

“The big star on that house over there.” Vicki thought she sounded a little too emphatic, and it embarrassed her.

“Oh. Yeah, I see it.”

“Why do people put those on their homes?”

“I don’t know.” Sara shrugged. “Decoration, I suppose.”

“It’s so weird. I’ve been seeing them everywhere lately. I don’t get it.”

“No accounting for taste.”

Vicki sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.” She pulled into the driveway and waited while Sara got her packages from the back seat. When Sara was safely in the door with her purchases, Vicki backed out of the driveway and turned for home.

After a fun day with a friend, two new pairs of shoes, and a fantastic lunch, she was feeling pretty good. She managed to ignore any more star-adorned houses along the way.

As she got closer to home, Vicki did happen to look at the farmhouse that was situated across the street from the elementary school. This part of the road was heavily wooded, and the farmhouse stood alone on a large piece of property. Whomever lived there, had no close neighbors. It was the house that had been hidden by trees until fairly recently. The star was somewhat smaller than others she’d seen, but it was prominent on the front of the house and stood out against the forest green of the siding.

For some reason, just looking at it erased all the good cheer Vicki had mustered on her pleasant outing. The weird, compelling feeling came rushing back. It was a mental itch she couldn’t scratch.

Why am I so bothered by this? she wondered.

On impulse, she pulled over to the side and when it was safe, turned the car around.

I’m going to ask the homeowner what the star means, she thought.

She pulled into the driveway of the farmhouse. A man was in the front yard, trimming a hedge. She was anxious but kept going and parked. The man shut off the trimmer and set it down as she got out of her car.

As she approached, he asked, “May I help you?”

Vicki went to him, hand outstretched and introduced herself. “I am a sort of neighbor of yours,” she said. “I live a mile back that way, just off the lake.” She offered a gesture vaguely toward the northeast.

“I’ve been driving by your house for years, and I wanted to stop by and tell you how much I admire the remodel you did. This place looks lovely.” She tried to sound sincere.

The man smiled at the compliment. “Well, thank you very much. It’s nice of you to say,” he said.

Vicki looked up at the star that was mounted on the siding. “I’m curious about that star,” she said, pointing up. “Does it have any special significance?” She was nervous and felt awkward and out of place.

The man’s smile vanished and was replaced by a scowl. He slowly turned his head as if to follow her pointing finger and looked at the star for a long time. When he turned back to Vicki, his face had a blank expression.

“It’s just a decoration,” he said. His tone of voice chilled Vicki to the bone. His inflection was as empty as his face, and the sentence sounded rote and mechanical. When his eyes met hers, it was as though he looked past her, no, through her.

She shuddered and tried to smile, but thought it probably looked like a grimace. “Of course,” she said. “I’m so sorry to have taken up your time.”

She retreated to the safety of her car as quickly as she could without actually running and avoided looking at the man as she backed out of the driveway.

It was beginning to get dark by the time she got home, and she felt a little relief as the garage door closed behind her. Confronting the man about the star seemed like such a good idea at the time. Now, she felt foolish and wanted to just get over it, but that was not going to happen. His bizarre reaction to her question was terrifying in the extreme. Something odd had happened in his mind when he looked at the star. It was uncanny.

Vicki went into the house and poured herself a dram of scotch. She wasn’t much of a drinker but thought it might calm her down. It was more than a little disconcerting that her fear did nothing to diminish her curiosity and compulsion to find out about the stars. What had begun as a minor annoyance, was unquestionably becoming an obsession. She was more determined than ever to find out what those damnable stars symbolized. Her trepidation did not prevent her from falling asleep that night, but it must have been what brought on the nightmare.

She awoke to the darkness of her bedroom, and soon discovered that she was unable to move. It was petrifying and she tried to scream, but only a hoarse rasp came out. She thought her eyes were open, but the darkness was complete. She was on the verge of panic when suddenly she began to feel lighter. Then, it was as though she were being lifted from the bed. She could sense no hands or device to make this possible. Her body seemed to float up into the darkness, against her will.

The higher she flew into the blackness of the night, the greater her terror became. Trying to give voice to the primal shrieks that were playing in her mind only made her paralysis and horror worse.

Vicki woke to a beam of sunlight slipping in through a small slit in the drapes on her bedroom window, which she normally kept closed. She felt exhausted, as though she had run a marathon while she slept.

She tried to remember the dream, well nightmare really, if she had to put a name on it, but it was slipping rapidly away from her consciousness. In its wake was a sense of horror too great to comprehend with her conscious mind. For a moment, she thought she might be going crazy, but then her thoughts turned to the stars and the weird behavior of the man.

After the unrestful sleep she’d had, it should be a no brainer to give up this ridiculous preoccupation, but instead it strengthened her resolve to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Even if it meant she didn’t go to work on Monday, Vicki was determined to go back to the green farmhouse by the school to see what was going on. She busied herself with housework and her usual Sunday chores, doing her best (and failing) to keep her mind off her plan for the nighttime.

Wow, I can’t believe I’m actually going through with this, she thought. When Vicki went to bed that night, she set an alarm for 1:00 a.m. Now, thirty minutes later, she was in her car and driving slowly along her workday route.

When her headlights showed the sign for the elementary school, Vicki slowed. She pulled over adjacent to the chain link fence that surrounded the building and turned her car off, dousing the lights. It took a little while before her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Her trepidation was growing rapidly, but she gripped the steering wheel and left her seatbelt fastened, as if she thought it would steady her.

She sat in the car for nearly an hour, but there was no movement from the house. The lights in the home were off when she arrived, and nothing had happened. Vicki told herself that this was a fool’s errand, and she probably should consider seeing a therapist about her own weird behavior.

That line of thinking didn’t change how she felt or lessen her expanding unease even a little. She resolved to wait until 3:00 a.m. If there had been no activity by then, there probably wasn’t going to be any.

Abruptly, a light came on in the sky over the farmhouse. It was as bright as the flash of a camera, but steady, and it enveloped the entire house. It illuminated the interior of the car and Vicki thought she should hide, but where to hide? She had her seatbelt on and couldn’t duck down below the dash in time.

Shielding her eyes from the glare, she saw an enormous black shape looming over the farmhouse. It was bigger than the house by far, and had it been daylight, it would have cast a shadow over a large swath of the road and surrounding fields. Vicki was pulled back to the memory of a childhood recurring nightmare that she used to have in times of stress.

In the nightmare, she was alone in the basement of a house, shivering in fear and staring up at a small window. Rhythmic crashing sounds seemed to be getting closer, and soon she could feel the reverberation as each crash grew louder.

An impossibly gigantic sandal-wearing foot and ankle would appear in the window as a giant strode past. That was when she would wake up. All the dread of that too-real nightmare came flooding into her, and Vicki realized that this was no nightmare.

Her heart began to slam against her chest wall, and Vicki’s breathing became rapid and shallow. Her horror was so raw that she thought she might lose control of her bladder. Despite her fear, she couldn’t take her eyes away from the spectacle unfolding before her.

In the beam of light, Vicki could see two bodies floating upward toward the dark, hovering shape. Absolutely no sound came from the craft. For craft it must be, to have appeared so suddenly and then remain motionless above the house. She was shaking now and wanted more than anything to start the car and drive off, but she felt cemented to her seat, with arms of lead and eyes that were stuck on the scene across the road.

She felt an unwelcome twinge of familiarity at watching two people sucked up into that thing. Her dream last night…what was it?

After a brief minute or two, the two bodies had disappeared into the bright light. This realization gave her the impetus she needed, and Vicki turned the key, still in the ignition. Click. Nothing. The car was dead.

“No, no, no, no, no…” she murmured as she tried again and again with no luck.

As fast as the light had come on, it went out. The afterimage temporarily blinded her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, afraid of what she might see when the afterimage dissipated.

When she opened her eyes, the giant craft was gone. Reflexively, she turned the key in the ignition again. The car started.

“Oh, thank god!” she cried and performed a rapid U-turn that caused the tires to squeal against the pavement. She almost flew home, gripping the wheel with white knuckles in her terror and haste.

She slapped at the garage door opener that was clipped to the sun visor. The door began to slowly slide up, and the garage light came on. Vicki pulled in too fast and nearly hit the far wall. She stayed in the locked car until the door had come down again and locked behind her. Only then did she turn the car off and tentatively get out.

She tossed her handbag onto the kitchen table and ran up to the bathroom to be sick. She was still trembling minutes later when she fell onto the bed. At first, she thought sleep would be impossible, but a draining tiredness came over her all at once, and she fell into a deep sleep.

When Vicki awoke the next morning, she did not feel rested or more relaxed. She had seen something so horrible, so unfathomable that she thought she would lose her sanity. The clock next to the bed read 10:30, so indeed she had slept the night away.

The sun was shining in through the windows when she went to make some coffee. She wondered what excuse she could possibly offer that might convey her desperate need to stay home from work.

The coffee helped her focus, and she took a few deep breaths. She could call in sick, no one would give it a second thought. The lie didn’t have to be elaborate. I ate some bad fish at lunch yesterday, whatever. But that was only one problem solved. How was she going to go on as if last night had never happened? She saw what she saw, of that there was no doubt. The stars meant a house was marked. For what? Alien abduction? Just thinking the phrase made her feel crazy. But what else could it have been?

After breakfast, Vicki went outside to pick up the mail, which had been in the box since Saturday. She sorted through the stack of ads, junk mail and bills as she walked back, still trying to absorb what she had witnessed. Just before she got to the porch, Vicki looked up and saw a large, brown, metal star affixed to the front wall of her house.