Stars Dancing in the Nighttime Sky

It’s a warm April night and the crickets are singing to the night. Jenny and I are lying on a blanket in the backyard looking up at the stars dancing in the nighttime sky.

“Daddy?”

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“You think there’s more than 500 stars up there?”

I smile. “Yep, there’s a lot more than that. There are millions and millions of stars up there.”

“Millions and millions?” Jenny says incredulously. “Whoa. I’m not sure I can count that high yet.”

I try to imagine what the nighttime sky looks like through 4-year-old eyes. “Did you have a good day?”

“Um-hm,” she replies. “I like birthday parties. Especially birthday parties for me. The only bad part is that when somebody asks me how old I am I can’t say ‘almost four’ anymore.”

“Is being four that much different from being ‘almost four’?”

Jenny sighs softly…there were, she already knew, so many things that parents and other adults simply did not get. “It’s completely different, Daddy,” she says as patiently as she could.

“Well after a while you can start telling people you’re ‘almost five’…”

She pauses as she weighs that and then, with some satisfaction, says, “Yeah, there’s that.”

We are quiet for a while just listening to the crickets and the slight rustling of the liquid amber trees. And then Jenny looks over at me. “Is there a time when I won’t be your little girl anymore? I’m not sure I want to get that old…”

I reach over and stroke her hair. “You’ll always be my little girl…no matter how old you get.”

“That’s good,” Jenny says softly, relief coloring her words. “I love you, Daddy.”

I smile again and let the warmth of the moment wash through me. “I love you too, sweetheart.”

I look up into the sky while Jenny, being the adventurous girl she is, goes back to trying to count all of the stars.

“Happy Birthday, pretty girl,” I whisper not wanting to disturb her mission.

“Thank you, Daddy,” Jenny whispers back not looking down from the stars dancing in the nighttime sky.

- for JLM -