A Friend For A Night

Sitting on the shabby and dusty rooftop and looking up at the stars was his favorite hobby. It was a tiring job to do every night but it was the only thing those bad people didn’t mind him doing. Also, no one came up on the roof so he could be alone for some time. The dust on the floor and at every surface was proof of that.         

“One…Two… Three… Four…”    

Starting with the most dazzling star he could see in the night sky, he started his count, just like every other night, and this time he was determined to break all his previous records. It was a little fun game he played all by himself. It was a simple and innocent but tough game. He had to count the stars. There were no rules but he lost every time he played it. He was never able to break his record because he had to stop at 80 and the sole reason behind the failure was his 7 – year old mind which messed up the counting after the number eighty.

“Eighty… Eighty…Eighty…”, he tried to remember what came next, but all he thought was of how Joshua stole his bread. Joshua was a member of ‘Very Bad Kids Gang’, as he named them. With the limited vocabulary he had, it was the best name he could come up with.

“Eighty-one,” a peculiar, yet silky-smooth voice piped in. It was a lean and tall silhouette, standing in a corner of the rooftop with a wall as a support and that was all his eyes could see in the darkness. Even with the shimmering white and gleaming light of the full moon and stars, his figure was hard to identify. The exact features of his face remain hidden but from his voice and his shadow, it was an easy guess that he may be a fine-looking person.

“Thank you” that’s a word he overheard the visitors of the orphanage saying. They used to say this word every time someone helped them and Joshua under no circumstances did the same. He never used to thank anyone, not even his own teachers. He was often scolded for that, and that moment brought peace to this little boy’s heart. He used to smile a little looking at Joshua’s scared face but later, felt terrible about it because he was taught never to feel happy about other’s sadness. Was he a terrible person? His innocent soul asked him every time it happened.  

There was one day when he told an older girl about his dilemma and questions. She used to visit them every weekend, and she was his only friend if he dared to say that. “You are so innocent.” That was the sole thing the girl stated and went away leaving him alone in the orphanage among strangers.    

“Who are you?”, he questioned the owner of that sugary sweet voice. He moved towards the stranger with curiosity rather than fear. His steps were small yet they were courageous. Walking towards the corner of the space he waited for the answer to the question. He wasn’t anxious at all; nothing except Joshua terrified him in this world. This stranger couldn’t be more dreadful than him, could he?       

“I am the Lord Of Darkness. Surrounded every day but lonely on a Full moon night.”, with a burst of fake laughter, the Lord sat down beside the child who stood in front of him, looking up and down at his form. Both of them were at the same height now, and it was much easier for the child to converse now without straining his little neck, he could directly see into those sparkly silver eyes.

“Lonely… Like me?”, he smiled and giggled, at last, he found someone like him who was lonely and had to spend his night on the rooftop. He was bullied, that’s what the older girl told him earlier but he wasn’t sure. He did use to cry after Joshua had done those terrible things to him but was it bullying? He didn’t know because bullying was a very very bad thing and he didn’t want to accuse him of something that bad. He was waiting for the right day to deliver his judgment. There were a few days when he thought Joshua was merely trying to tease him but on normal days, he used to cry and pray to get far away from him.

“ Just like you kid, just like you. Those stars accompany me every day and play with me but when that full moon comes, they abandon me. Those little stars know how to betray someone. I was thrown here today.”, the shadow stared directly at him and a chill went down his spine, a new feeling for a 7-year old but he wasn’t complaining, after all, life is nothing but experiences.

“Will you count stars with me? After eighty-one? There are so many stars, and I can’t do it alone.”, even though the Lord of Darkness hated stars at that moment, he couldn’t say no to the little innocent face of the child there.

Counting his friends was fun, he should accept that though it was very shocking at first, however it was in a way therapeutic and relaxing. Why a 7-year old required something like this was what he desired to inquire but decided against it to not ruin the moment or the counting. That sneaky little…were some exact words he thoughts when they included his so-called best friend in the counting. He was like this every month when the moon was full and its light was enough to chase him away. He hated his friends that night because no one fought for him. They used to apologize the next night but that one night of loneliness hurt him every time it happened.

The fierce Lord of Darkness and a dainty child spent the whole night, counting the stars from one end of the sky to another. He surpassed all his records that night and couldn’t be more delighted to receive the Lord’s help. The Lord surely knew his way with numbers, and it was really astonishing to a 7-year old that a person can count so much and not forget it for a moment. He felt so victorious that night after creating a new and such an exemplary record. Hoping to see his unknown friend again next night, he yawned and said “Good night, let’s count tomorrow again.”, just to retreat to his shabby little cot in the lower bedroom of the house. That night he tossed and turned, smiling and thinking about his friends until sleep accompanied him to his dreamland.

Next night seemed so far away but after a long and endless wait, it did arrive. Running to the rooftop, jumping on the way, and skipping a few stairs, he couldn’t wait to meet his friend of the previous night, however, that friend never came. Once again he was sitting there alone, but something was different that night. He was waiting for someone. He hoped that the person from the previous night would accompany him, once again. But that never happened that night.

“Was that person real?”, he did question himself. Maybe all that was a fragment of his own imagination or his loneliness finally had him or maybe someone played a prank on him, the arguments were endless and as his train of thought went wilder and wilder, he knew he couldn’t do anything but wait.

Shaking every thought away he looked up at the night sky and started counting, just like every night.

“Eighty… Eighty… Eighty… Eighty-one.”