Bring the Stars to You

"Wow, these are thick," Enso said, holding the eyeglasses to the side and measuring the plastic with their fingers. "Keep going and you'll squish your eyes."

"A lot of people don't realize that you can be blind and still see." Charity said, reaching her hand out for where she was pretty sure Enso and her glasses were. The colored blob moved to hand them to her. "It just means there's no way that I'll ever see 20/20, even with glasses or contacts."

"So... you don't need a seeing eye dog?"

"No, which... since I'm allergic is probably a good thing. I always wanted dogs growing up but every time I'd go near one I'd start itching and coughing... They say if I end up needing one that hopefully a poodle or a labradoodle will make it easier, but since I can still 'see' now, we haven't ever tried it," Charity shyly shook out her short brown hair, allowing her bangs to top her glasses again.

"Aw, no dogs? That's too bad..." Enso sighed overdramatically, obviously setting up some joke.

"And why is that?"

"I was figuring I could be your seeing eye dog!" Enso barked and ran around her, panting. She couldn't figure out why they wanted to be near her so much. They were funny and stylish. She was shy and what she would describe as frumpy.

Enso jumped into the downward dog pose and wagged their butt. Charity laughed, "I can't decide to be endeared or insulted. I'd much rather have you as a friend than a dog."

"I'm preeetttty sure I can be both," Enso replied, but they stood up and resumed their walk home anyway. "So all that means you might not see very well for our project?"

Charity shook her head. "I don't see well in the dark, so even if we go camping to see the meteor shower from somewhere with less light pollution, I might just see an empty sky."

"Wow, that's... too bad." Enso said deep in thought.

"I'll try to do what I can of the project, I just..." in frustration she waved her hands out to the side.

"No, it's okay. The shower's on Saturday and the project's due on Friday... Can I come over Monday night?"

"Um, sure, if you think that will be enough time to work on it."

"If we need more then I'll come over some'more." Enso shrugged, starting to run backwards. "I've got to go, I have a lot to do if I'm going to do this right!"

The night of the shower came, and Charity squinted at the pitch black sky from her room. She hoped Enso was having more luck than her, the only light she saw at all was a tiny moon, dimly trying to mimic the sun's light. She felt light the moon, at night. Alone and trying to remember what day was like with people and friends. Maybe that's why the moon would hang out in the day sometimes too, barely noticed, just a fingernail in the sky. It wasn't being blind that made her invisible, if anything that made her a little interesting. She was mousy, too shy to make herself known and sometimes that made people think she was spoiled, so they avoided her.

Enso had been the only person to chat her up, perhaps because Enso needs someone to talk to or they might die of loneliness like bunnies or alpacas. They would talk to a snow man if it was convincing enough. Charity would take it though, because with Enso was her daytimes, a moment with a sun in the sky when she wasn't alone.

With Monday came Enso with...

"What is that?" Charity asked.

"Cheetos," Enso said with their mouth full of spicy Cheetos.

"I can see that." She sighed. "What's the rest of it?"

"Oh yeah," Enso said, smiling at their own joke. "That's my own project. Go sit down, and I'll show you."

Charity sighed. Either they were not going to do their lab project, or it was going to be overdone, and she couldn't tell which was worse yet. She sat down in her work chair as Enso wheeled in what looked to be a cart of AV equipment.

The first thing to go up was a projector, which was a rather fancy one. It wasn't school issue, it was one the gaming kids would use to make their screen "super high definition." With it came the white screen to project on. A block out curtain was thrown haphazardly over her normal ones to block out the sunlight and a laptop was attached to the projector for sound and sight. Lastly Enso brought out some popcorn and sodas.

"To your seat, madam. The show is about to begin," they ushered her from the chair to the cozier bed, turned out the lights, and started the music.

"This gentle classical stuff is just going to make me fall asleep," Charity complained. But as she did stars came into vision. The Milky Way like she remembered it as a child. Every few minutes a shooting star would go by like it was being animated in some Disney treasure. "You recorded it?"

"Well, I had the help of the rest of the class too, but yeah. I explained the problem and we went to the observatory and had a recording of the night sky done. That way we got to see it live and you get to see it just a little closer."

Charity was held in place. The stars moved a bit faster than normal, of course, but they were stars. She'd missed them for so long. The missing piece in her life wasn't gone, just waiting behind her, invisible all this time waiting for her to move a little closer. She burst into tears.

"Charity!?" Enso asked, startled.

"I'm sorry," she chuckled. "It's been a long time since I've seen them. Everyone helped? I thought they didn't like me."

"People are usually just waiting for you to make the first move. That's why I'm always on the move," they smirked, wiggling their shoulders.

"Thank you... Now rewind, I'm missing it all!"