Gertrud Tõrra - The stars look quiet tonight

illustrator Sabina Sumštšenko

© Gertrud Tõrra, 2022

ISBN 978-5-0056-3438-2

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

,,Restricted freedom” she muttered while looking at the shining dark cover of a book. You could still smell that freshly published, out of the factory smell on it. It was laying on the table between a jar of last autumn’s apple jam and an old rusty hammer. Its handle was barely hanging on to the weight of its heavy head.

,,So, what do you think?” a woman walked into the room with a big smile on her face. Her face was flawless and she had long eyelashes that complimented her deep blue eyes and drew attention away from the dark bags under her eyes. Water was dripping from the ends of her hair. Hair that the girl noted was the same shade as the dark and shiny cover. The woman had a towel wrapped around her flawless bony shoulders. ““Well… I.. like the title?”” the girl tried to find something to say about it while continuing to stare at the book. ““Are you kidding me? You didn’t even bother to open it,”” she said with a pouty face as she sat down ““This one took me a long time to write, just so you know.”” She rolled her eyes, but didn’t look too bothered as she had expected as much from the girl. ““When has it ever taken you a short amount of time?”” the girl said underneath her breath, finally looking up from the table. The woman frowned while drying the ends of her hair with the towel.

«„That’s true, but now I can at least be away from all the editors and rest up, Jay!“» she rested her elbows on the hard surface of the table. Jay stood up and walked over to the coffee machine to make a drink for her aunt. She yawned in boredom as the machine demanded more water. The woman talked on, cursing her work and all her co-workers. It had been almost a month since she had last seen her aunt Luna as she had been busy with the novel’s deadline coming up. She was already used to not seeing her aunt around a lot. So living alone most of the time was usual. And some would think writers stay at home all the time.

The cup was slowly getting filled up with delicious coffee while Luna found a pack of wheat cookies and ripped it open. The room slowly started to smell like freshly baked coffee beans. Luna was in the middle of devouring all the found cookies, which wasn’t exactly a pleasant sight. The coffee machine started beeping and Jay took the filled red cup to her aunt. Walking slowly, trying not to spill any. «„So how long are you staying home this time?“» she asked while putting the coffee down next to Luna. She swallowed the last cookie and took a quick sip before opening her phone to look at the calendar. «„I should go back to work next Tuesday, but I’ll probably stay a little longer,“» she took another sip. Jay sat back down and started tapping her fingers on the edge of the table. Luna put the red cup back down while staring at the calendar and trying hard to think about something. «„Oh!“» she suddenly looked at Jay. «„Doesn’t school start tomorrow?“» she looked pretty proud for remembering it, but the next second, realisation hit. «„How could I forget?“» her face turned worrisome. «„Do you have all the school supplies? I think most of the shops are already closed now. Do they still even have school supplies left? What should we do?“» she started muttering to herself. «„Don’t worry! I already bought everything last week while grocery shopping. I’m not that helpless.“» Jay’s eyes went back to staring at the book. Luna looked at Jay with a worrisome face.

««I’m sorry! I totally forgot about it with everything going on and deadlines coming up,»» she looked down at the cup of coffee. The atmosphere in the room felt a little awkward. Jay calmly stood up from the chair: ««It’s okay! I know how hard it has been for you.»» She walked over to the stairs. ««I have to wake up early tomorrow, so I’ll go to bed now’’ she slowly walked up the stairs and into her room. It was rather dark in there.

The room was very plain, mabye even a little too plain. All the walls and floor were empty. Only an average bed on one side, next to it a small side table that looked quite antique. The only other thing there was a giant window that covered the whole outer wall from floor to the ceiling. She walked closer and looked out. It was an alluring view.

The house is located in the middle of the woods, away from the city lights, surrounded by tall pine trees. Tonight they made interesting siluets on the floor. It was quite cloudy, but with time the clouds moved away from the only sorce of light, opening a way for the moonlight to come in from the window. Tonight happened to be a full moon. It was hovering over the trees and seemed unusually big. Jay’s expression didn’t change as she continued looking out the window for quite a while. After some time she let out a quiet sigh and sat down on top of the bed. She touched around the side table, looking for her earphones. As soon as she connected it to her phone, the screen lit up making Jay squint her eyes from the sudden brightness. She put the earphones into her ears and started listening to some music.

Jay laid down and pulled the planket over her head, hiding away from the moonlight, making herself into a little ball. «„I don’t want to go to school,“» she mumbled as a faint sound of a piano could be heard from her earphones. The big old grandfather clock that stood right outside the door in the hallway struck twelve

times as Jay slowly closed her eyes.

The girl woke up to the sound of a tiny tit singing right outside her window. Landing on the windowsill, singing a few notes and flying away again. She slowly opened her eyes. A beam of light hit her face. She held her hand over her eyes to block it. The full moon had disappeared and a clear sky had taken over. The tit continued her flight over the trees. Jays eyes slowly followed the little bird as it flew furder and furder until it landed in a tree. The alarm on her phone went off and cut the silence in the room. Jay let out a short sigh and turned the alarm off. She stood up from the bed and walked over to the door. Instead of opening it she looked down at the door handle. As she reached her hand out to take a hold of it her right ear started ringing. Jay tilted her head and pressed against it to stop the ringing. She slightly hesitated before opening the door and walking past the grandfather clock. The smell of freshly baked pancakes hit her. Jay took a deep breath, faintly the ends of her mouth curled upwards into a small smile and she continued her walk downstairs to the kitchen.

«„Good morning!“» Luna happily shouted over the sound of the frying pan when she spotted the girl. Jay sat down and looked at the pile of pancakes in the middle of the table. «„Here is the milk!“» Luna poured her a class of cold milk. Jay looked at the milk carton. «„Don’t worry it’s lactose free, I can atleast remeber that,“» she put it back into the fridge and took out a jar of blackcurrant jam. Luna turned down the fire and put the last pancake on top of the pile.