MORGAN CHAN
Tiny pencils scratched against the test papers as Leia’s heels clicked, her tall frame hovered over each student, surveying their boldly scribbled letters that could only be deciphered with a squint. Before she reached the desk, a light tug pulled her to a stop.
‘Miss?’ The child whispered.
Tucking her skirt, Leia knelt beside her.
‘Is this good?’ The child pointed meekly.
Her brows scrunched at the stick figures, their triangular bodies holding hands under the prompt ‘Love’, elicited a coil in her stomach.
She pulled her lips into a thin line. ‘… Mhm.’
The child grinned, giving herself a tick before moving to the next question. Leia stared blankly at the drawing. Soon, the school bell followed, signalling for everyone to go home.
__
The light dimmed as the sun pulled the remaining warmth with it, her breaths were left visible before she entered the convenience store for the fourth time that week. Stepping out, the automatic ‘ding-dong’ rang as Leia nibbled on a sandwich in one hand, holding a plastic bag in the other. She passed the fogged windows, ignoring the goosebumps that had settled under the bell-sleeves of her blouse, well acquainted with the quiet months of winter. The weekend had begun and she found no reason to head back just yet.
Halfway through her first meal of the day, Leia began to zone out, heels clicking as she sauntered down a path, her skirt offering no warmth to the chills in her legs. After an hour of aimless walking, she found herself back at the park again, an equal distance from Barley’s club and her apartment. It seemed, no matter where she wandered, the body remembered its sanctuary.
Scoffing, she ascended the same three steps, chalk drawings smudged beneath her. With a light crinkle, she dropped the bag on a nearby bench and sat down beside it in observation. The monkey bars had begun to chip its red paint, opened spots of rust had spread to the handles at the top of the slide; the tiny cracks etched in the sun-bleached yellow made her cringe.
She paused at the two swings; an uncomfortable prickling overcame her skin. Like muscle memory, her hands shuffled through her pocket before a cigarette was shoved to her lips; with a few clicks and a sudden warmth to her face, she resorted to familiar habits. Letting her head fall back, she released a grey puff towards the sky, brows furrowing at the thick clouds that had formed overhead, blocking the stars and initiating a storm.
The first few droplets marked the end of her little excursion. Leia moved to leave before spotting a soft glow from the bushes, yellow, odd, and unfitting in its environment. Muscles stiffened as she reluctantly snuffed out the tobacco on the bench. Curiosity pulled her towards the light, fingers slipping through the soaked leaves as she pushed them apart, unable to contain the gasp that followed.
At the small opening, a fluorescent star pulsed with all its might as it shifted back from her, seemingly… alarmed? With a thud and less grace than a newborn calf, Leia landed back elbows first, the small rocks in the mud splitting skin. Before she could attempt to scramble away, the star came out, floating towards her, and both fight-or-flight senses gave out. Frozen to the floor, the swelling silence amplified the thump behind her ribcage.
‘He-lp pl-e-ase…’
A weak static reaches her, numbing the silence as her fingers twitched against the dirt. She blinked. Once. Twice. She wondered if all the skipped meals had finally taken their toll on her mind because that had more plausibility than a talking star. Before Leia could conclude that the earlier tobacco had been mixed with something else, the being spoke again.
‘M-me... please hel-p—' Its voice came in patches, feminine and gentle in nature.
Leia loosened her grip on the land, finally taking in its words. The star floated closer, her voice a foreign sound but a familiar tone, released a tension Leia didn’t know she had. The sudden ease should’ve scared her, but instead she managed to push out a shaky hand, mindlessly extending her palm before the glow suddenly dulled a few shades and dropped in her lap.
*
The morning came surprisingly smooth, missing its usual nipping cold as Leia wakes to a warm glow. She blinks. The star shifts closer. Hm. Leia closes her eyelids once again, a silent denial of her reality.
‘NUH UH WAKE UP!’
This was no dream. Wincing at the sudden outburst, her eyes peel open. Bouncing next to her head was the star, or rather, a ‘soul’, something she miraculously pierced together from last night’s incoherency while she hurried to find blankets.
She lets out a groan before sitting up, the sheets wrinkling at her waist as she steps into fuzzy slippers, the cold wrapping around her legs. Leia heads for the kitchen, the star following close while she began brewing coffee. The little star, which she now knows as ‘Koni’, a name teasingly appointed by her cone-shaped head, hovers around while they discuss the next steps towards getting Koni ‘home’.
Leia blows over the steaming beverage, lost in a world between disbelief and unreasonable responsibility. No one has ever heard of souls falling from the sky; no records, no existing theories or sightings. So why has God dropped this task on her? Was it punishment? A test? Sipping the bitter liquid, her thoughts were interrupted by a light poke on the cheek.
‘Why do you even drink that crap? It's bad enough that you smoke! You trying to get early entry to where I'm heading?!’ Koni barked before shooting back from the coffee in disgust.
Leia sighs as she turns to the sink, pouring the half-empty cup into the sink. Where have I heard those words before? She whips back, hands on the counter, finger tapping the marble impatiently. Well?
Koni spins a few times, contemplating, thinking of the best way to explain their situation.
‘Sometimes, and I mean rarely, a cloud will spot a living human with a distressed or unstable soul, and as cry-babies, the cloud will grow heavier, forming tears that leads to so much crying that they eventually dissipate, and a soul that’s already passed on, will accidentally fall through… kinda like if the floor of your own home were to suddenly disappear.’
Sighing into her palms, Leia hums in acknowledgement, trying her best to maintain prompt composure.
‘There’s just one thing I don’t understand, well-besides all of it… do all souls just eventually become stars?’
‘Yeah! Wonderful, isn’t it?’
Leia scoffs, ‘To be trapped above clouds? Divided from the people below you? No. I wouldn’t say so.’
‘Clouds… aren’t solid objects you know. They’re translucent; there’s transparency when you really try looking for it.’
A knit forms between Leia’s brows, mumbling, ‘Who says I haven’t tried.’
Koni watches sympathetically as Leia abruptly returns to her room to change. She wanders, humming, before stopping at a picture. Leia joins later in quiet tandem.
She carefully picks up the frame, fawning over the girl’s bright expression as she played the piano. The slit-leg of her crimson dress revealed her sun-kissed skin, warmed under the cozy spotlight, while patrons of the jazz club were caught mid-whistle in the background. She recalls her first time at Barley’s, reluctant to be surrounded by unsteady drunks but more than willing to witness the greatest performance of her beloved, blessed by her notes while the night in her hair bounced on her shoulders. She’d give anything to go back.
‘Her name was Inko.’
‘…Do you miss her?’
‘All the time.’
Leia set the frame down, brows lifting at Koni as she’s taken aback by deep pink settling into Koni’s form. The rosy star flips around quickly to face nothing in particular.
‘T-that’s- good to hear.’
Lifting a brow, Leia’s mouth curls into a confused smirk, an unexplainable giddiness rising in her chest before strolling to the door. Just as she twists the knob, the door is vigorously pushed open. Koni beams past in her peripheral vision as she yells ‘INTO THE WOODS!’ Thrown by the sudden burst of energy, Leia finds herself pleasantly surprised, a familiar tingle spreading through her limbs.
__
Walking in awkward directions, Leia prioritises the sunny spots while occasionally trying to dodge the branches snagging at her hair. She should remain sceptic of this ‘wishing-well’ that could shoot Koni into the sky, but any state of ‘normal’ has long been trampled over. If anything, she pushes on for Koni’s sake.
At some point, the sky had dipped into an orange hue, and even Koni began floating lower to the ground, pacing beside Leia as she eyes the last drops of bottled water being consumed. Briefly stopping at the lake’s edge, the two plop onto pillowy grass, legs giving out while they sprawl out next to each other.
‘Even souls can get tired?’ Leia tilts her head, the grass tickling her cheek.
‘Everybody gets tired at some point,’ Koni states plainly, hovering over some Marsh Marigolds.
A few minutes of comfortable silence followed. The unpredicted rise in temperature thaws her stiff muscles. In their momentary break, Leia searches for animals in the tangerine sky, spotting cats, horses, and the frequent, unoriginal sheep. Her gaze tracks the unhurried clouds, pure, grand in all their glory, and she catches glimpses through their transparency. Colourful rays reach through to find her, and as the sunset drowns the field in a brilliant glow, it felt like a weight was lifting, escorted through a path carved by heaven itself, floating higher through the clouds.
Leia picks herself up, a light dizziness taking hold while her stomach growls with reason. Koni quickly follows at the mention of food. By the time they reach the store, the night had taken hold. Leia passes an aisle of snacks before strolling up to the clerk, Koni shuffling uncomfortably in her bag. Looking up from his phone, he begins scanning.
‘The usual?’ He states, reaching back for a packet of cigarettes.
‘No!’ She clears her throat. ‘I mean, I'm good, thank you’.
He lifts a brow, offering a nod before finishing the checkout, unable to hide the brief surprise at the basket of vegetables and meats.
__
Arriving home, Koni shoots out of the leathery “cage”, happy to be free again. She hovers at the doorway as Leia kicks off her shoes, marching to the kitchen before starting on the vegetables. Koni watches in awe as she dices onions, carrots, potatoes, and celery into a pot, squeezing tomato paste into the stock before leaving the beef to simmer. A strong, savoury aroma wafts through the apartment, tangy with a little spice.
Koni makes attempts to contribute, claiming her pointy bits would make a fine tenderiser, to which Leia rolls her eyes at. For the sake of team effort, she eventually yields to focaccia bread. Spots of flour and oil scatter as Koni imprints holes into the dough, eliciting unexpected laughter. The room chimes with giggles as Koni turns to reveal a clump of dried-up dough on her head.
*
The sun beamed with radiance, and just like the past few days, there had been little to no clouds as the pair strolled through the woods once again. The two talked about anything and everything, time flying with the flow of their conversations and like clockwork, the sun paved way for the rising moon. What Leia had hoped to be another fruitless adventure was shortly refuted, her body stiffening at the stone well that sat mockingly between two arched trees. Koni followed after.
‘Hey! I’ve called you three times, what's wro—’ She halted.
Leia kept her eyes glued to the floor as Koni rushed past her, bouncing her way to the well as she cheered to the skies. Leia shuffled towards the well fingers tugging the edge of her sweater. She peered over the well, an empty void of black, swallowing and resentful. Koni hovered in front of her, the shadowy pit vanishing beneath her halo glow. Leia finally looked up, chest gripped and trying hard to see through blurred vision.
‘Don’t go.’
The wind casted a few stray leaves into Leia’s hair. Silence. Koni paused, light paling for a second as she considered her next words. Using a tip, she tilted Leia’s head towards the starry sky.
‘Who says I’m going anywhere?’
Leia scoffed, though there was no real bite behind it.
‘…I’ll still be here, even when it rains ok?’
The moon’s embrace became strangely comforting. She wrapped her arms as tightly as she could, letting the light soak into her skin before letting go.
Koni muttered a quick wish before falling into the well. A few seconds later, a giant beam shot out of the well, its brilliant gold lit up the forest. Leia breathed through the tears, watching as Koni illuminated the clouds, fracturing the sky into tiny mirrors and letting its beautiful blue pour in.
Morgan Chan is a frequent writer from Sydney. She shares a deep fascination for complex character building and an appreciation for romance. She is constantly seeking to explore identities and layers of the human soul to represent in writing. When she’s not writing, she’s busy indulging in the storytelling of games, participating in photography, and contemplating about the creation of more nuanced characters. She also enjoys several cuisines.
