What The Stars Are Like

Tristan McLean, famous actor whom many young and older women would give their right arm to meet, needed a break from the Hollywood scene and he knew of only one place in the world that was safe from paparazzi.

He had to go back to his roots.

Tristan had his secretary, Jane, make the proper preparations for him to take off work for a couple of days and loaded himself and his daughter into the rented limousine to get to his private jet.

Piper was excited. She never spent as much time with her father as she would like and enjoyed every minute alone she could get with him. She chatted excitedly the whole drive and asking him of their plans.

Jane waited at the airport to send her boss off and make sure he had everything he would need. It would be an inconvenience if he forgot anything and she would have to ship it to him later. When she saw his troublesome daughter walking next to him, she curled her lip in contempt. That little girl was trouble. She had met many children of famous actors and they were always the same. Acting out, behaving rudely, and generally thinking that the world was their play ground and they could do whatever they wanted without suffering the consequences.

As Tristan and his daughter approached her, she glared at Piper, trying to convey a warning through her eyes.

Piper made a face at Jane when her father wasn't looking. That woman enjoyed getting her in trouble.

"I hope you have a nice mini vacation," Jane said cordially. She shot Piper a glance that seemed to say she doubted his vacation would be nice with his daughter tagging along.

"Thank you, Jane," Tristan said politely. "Give yourself a little vacation too."

Jane smiled brightly. "Why thank you, Mr. McLean, but I have too much work to go over. We have that new movie deal coming up in a week and I have to make sure everything runs smoothly."

"You work too hard, you deserve a little time off."

Piper rolled her eyes behind her father's back. Jane saw it and her jaw tightened.

"I enjoy my work and don't need any time off," the words came out harsher than she intended and when she realized this her features smoothed. "I'll let you two board now, have fun!"

Piper brushed past the secretary and excitedly boarded the plane ahead of her father as he gave Jane some last minute instructions. She walked down the aisle, greeting the flight attendants and found a seat in the back.

"Put your seatbelt on," Tristan told her as he sat across from Piper. She nodded and fastened her seatbelt. They waited several minutes before the pilot came on the intercom and told them they had gorgeous weather and he expected them to arrive at their destination in a few hours. Piper stared out the window as the plane moved. Soon they were lifting off and she took her seatbelt off.

The flight attendant came back and offered them some drinks and a snack. Tristan took a glass of wine and waved away the finger foods. Piper opened a can of soda, which her father insisted be poured into a glass and took a some carrots and celery.

They made slightly awkward small talk since Piper had pretty much asked him everything she wanted to know on the drive there. Tristan mostly asking about Piper's new school and if she liked it. She lied and made everything sound wonderful. She even invented two girls who were supposedly her best friends.

Her father believed her, of course. He never suspected that Piper lied because she knew that was what he wanted to hear. Soon he fell asleep after telling her he had had an exhausting week.

When the plane landed, Tristan drove the car they had waiting for him to his dad's cabin. The place where he had grown up as a often told Piper he intended to sell it, but hadn't done so yet. Instead, they used it as a place to get away from the city and noise.

It was dusk when they reached the cabin. A few stars twinkled on the horizon.

"Let's sleep outdoors tonight," he suggested.

"Okay," Piper readily agreed.

She helped him bring out the sleeping bags and pillows, laying them on the ground. They never bothered with setting up a tent, preferring to look up at the stars as they slept. They ate sandwiches wrapped in gold paper, which Piper detested with all her heart because it ruined the fantasy that they were a normal father and daughter camping out for the weekend. Who had a well paid chef make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for their daughter? It was ridiculous. Piper could have made the sandwiches.

They laid down after they finished eating and Piper sighed happily.

She hadn't been this content in a long time. She breathed in the cool air, feeling her lungs expand as she held in the chilly air. Then she exhaled and watched her breath come out in a smoky fog.

Piper gazed up at the stars and was awed by their numbers and beauty. In the city she considered herself lucky if she saw three or four stars in the sky. Out here she could see the Milky Way.

Piper glanced at her dad as he laid on the ground next to her hands under his head. He too gazed at the stars in wonder. As if feeling her eyes on him, he turned his head and smiled. ""Beautiful, eh, Pipes?"

Piper smiled and nodded. "Yes, very beautiful."

"Have I ever told you the old Cherokee legend about the stars your Grandpa Tom used to tell me?"

She shook her head and relaxed, eager to hear another story. Tristan gathered his thoughts, then began in a deep story telling voice taught to him by his father.

"Some say the stars are balls of light, others believed them to be human at one time, but our people say they are creatures covered in luminous fur.

One night, on a night much like this, a hunting party camped in the mountains in hopes that game would be better there than in the valley where they lived.

In the distance, they noticed two bright lights, like stars, moving along a ridge. They wondered at the strange lights and watched until they were gone. The next night they saw the bright lights yet again, moving along the ridge and finally satisfied their curiosity by going to the ridge to find the lights the next morning.

What they found were two very large and strange creatures that they had never seen before. Their round bodies were covered with fine dark fur. When a breeze blew, sparks shot out of the thick hide.

The hunters carried these strange creatures back to their camp and kept them there for several days. They noticed these creatures shone like stars every night, but in the morning their fur dulled and did not glow.

By the seventh night, the hunters made preparations to return home in the morning and laid themselves down to sleep one more night in the mountain. Just as they had settled in the creatures glowed brighter than ever before and rose up from the ground. Upwards they flew into the night sky until they were higher than the trees. The hunters sat watching in awe. Soon, two new points of lights could be seen in the sky and the hunters knew then that those creatures were stars.

When they left the mountains for their homes the next morning they told their families about the stars. The story has been passed down from parent to child since, that way we will never forget what the stars really are."

There was a long silence between Piper and Tristan as she mulled the story over. It was a beautiful tale, but was it true? "Do you believe the story is real, Dad?"

Tristan glanced over at his daughter, then turned to look at the stars again. "Your Grandpa Tom believed it," he laughed softly. "It's just a story, Pipes, a legend." He turned his head to look at her again. "Humans feel the need to make up stories in order to explain the universe around them. They need a reason to live, something to hold onto that will explain to them how everything works."

Piper frowned in thought. "If you don't believe in the stories, then what do you hold onto? What is your reason for living?"

Tristan smiled and reached over to touch her cheek. "You're my reason for living, Pipes. You are what holds me to this earth."

Piper grinned. "I love you, Dad."

"I love you too, Pipes."

Father and daughter returned their gaze to the stars.

Piper wondered where her mother was at this moment and if she were thinking about them right now. Did she believe in the Cherokee legends? A cool breeze touched Piper's face and she imagined it was her mother's fingers caressing her. For a second she thought she could hear her mother's voice being carried in the wind. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation.

Unknown to either of them, a slim figure in a satiny pink dress, watched them and smiled. She had Aeolus send a gentle breeze over her beloved daughter since that was the only way she could touch her right now. "Someday, my little Piper," she whispered into the breeze. "Someday we will meet face to face. First you must face many hardships. In the end, everything will be all right."