SKY STARS SEA STARS
SKY STARS SEA STARS
La mesa redonda
Illustrations by Fabiola Villela Text by Haydeé Salmones
Sky Stars Sea Stars Piedra Bezoar
First Spanish edition: Editorial Piedra Bezoar, 2020 First English edition: Editorial Piedra Bezoar, 2021 Collection: La mesa redonda Title: Sky Stars. Sea Stars Original title: Estrellas de cielo. Estrellas de mar Authors: Fabiola Villela and Haydeé Salmones Translation: Kelly McLaughlin Translation reviewer: Nere Georgina García Andrade Editor: Mauricio del Olmo Layout and design: Haydeé Salmones
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When Estela goes to the beach, her f lip-f lops fill with sand, her skin turns a little pink and Mother says some very strange things. Today, for example, Mother pointed to a starfish and exclaimed “Asteroidea!”. Estela wants to be an astronaut, so she knows very well what an asteroid is, but this soft thing with suckers sure doesn’t look like one.
As soon as she gets home, Estela runs to her bedroom and takes out one of her astronomy books: “Asteroids are rocky celestial bodies smaller than a planet.” Mother comes into the room with a glass of milk, four cookies, and a pair of pajamas. Estela nibbles on one of the cookies and asks, “Are starfish asteroids?” Mother laughs. “No, Estela; Asteroidea is the term we scientists use to name them”.
Mother tells her that scientists use names in Latin and Greek to classify living beings; she talks about genera, species, and families. Estela’s eyelids grow heavier and a giant yawn escapes because it has been a tiring day. The last thing she hears before falling asleep is that Asteroidea and asteroid mean star. Estela feels that she is f loating inside a spaceship... and she dreams.
What does Estela dream about? She dreams that she is sailing the sea in a paper boat. Suddenly the clouds grow dark, and a heavy rain wets her nose. She puts on her astronaut helmet and clings to the boat. On the horizon, a huge wave appears, bigger than her house. The wave rises, rises, rises... until it reaches the sky and hits a constellation. Splash! One by one the stars fall into the sea.
Estela feels how the little boat navigates the waves. She closes her eyes and holds her helmet tight. When she opens her eyes, there is no longer a boat or a sea or even waves. It is still raining, but she is standing in the park, accompanied by her puppy. She puts her helmet on him for protection and takes her umbrella out. There is something strange about the falling drops. Tiny stars slide down her umbrella and her hand. Perhaps the starfish are all the stars that have ever rained down from the sky.
A big puddle has formed under Estela’s feet. Tiny stars f loat upon it. The sky stars are ref lected in it. Estela imagines that, on bright nights, starfish emerge to greet their distant cousins. Oodles of starfish and sky stars waving to one another in welcoming gestures.
Estela dreams that she is building a spaceship that runs on seawater. A light craft propelled by the force of the spray from a large blue whale’s blowhole. Estela blasts off a thousand meters into the sky, while the people watching the launch from the beach look like little crabs, then ants, then nothing at all.
Estela approaches the moon. The lunar surface looks like a great white beach. When the ship lands, Estela puts on her helmet and descends; she puts up a f lag with her name on it and prepares to explore. In front of her is a mountain. She has never seen a mountain so tall. Estela climbs, climbs, climbs. At the top, she stands on tiptoe and holds out her hand. The space makes waves when Estela touches it.
In her dream, space is a great ocean in which you can f loat while stars and planets swim beneath your shadow. Jupiter is a blue whale. Saturn, a giant octopus. Neptune, a stingray. Uranus, a walrus. The Earth, a turtle. Venus, a jellyfish. Mars, a sponge. Mercury, a clam. And Pluto? Poor Pluto: the pearl inside the clam.
Estela has always found adults to be a bit weird. In Mother’s books, there are elephant seals, sea lions, seahorses, hawk fish, hammerhead sharks, scorpionfish, cornet fish, butterf lyfish. Estela laughs. What a strange place the ocean is! Catfish are sure to meow at the moon and play with starfish!
In Estela’s dream, there is a gang of space cats. They jump on the stars when they twinkle. If they catch one, they grab it between their paws and do three cartwheels. If Estela squints her eyes, the Big Dipper looks like a ball of yarn with a loose thread. There goes another cat. There goes another star. They never stand still and the poor astronomers have to refocus to see them.
Suddenly, a group of comets approaches Estela. It is a family of belugas that announce themselves with their song. Estela has heard it on the Space Agency recordings: comets, dolphins, and whales speak the same language. They are cavernous, millennial, and friendly sounds. Estela observes the belugas passing by and climbs upon the largest one.
Estela travels through space atop the beluga. She notices a group of luminous islands that f loats gently above her head. Estela caresses the neck of her new friend, says goodbye to her, and sets off to reach one of the islands. What she finds is a stardust beach. Estela kneels and, very patiently, builds a shiny sandcastle.
After a few hours, a spot of white foam hits the beach. Estela gazes in wonder at a cluster of clouds that gradually unravels her castle. Estela stops at the edge of the island, while the clouds come and go caressing her stellar boots.
Beneath the white foam, she discovers a large brown turtle. Estela lets her body descend little by little until she reaches it. The turtle is ten thousand times bigger than she is. Her shell is a forest of lichens and dunes, covered by seafoam and a sky full of huge clouds. Estela walks gently over the turtle so as not to hurt her, but the turtle doesn’t even notice her presence. Perhaps the ancients were right and the planets are nothing more than huge turtles with trees and clouds riding piggyback.
What Estela sees next takes her breath away. Hundreds of jellyfish traversing through space. A luminescent swarm of colors: pink, blue, orange, yellow, transparent. Mother has explained that she must not touch them. But jellyfish are Estela’s favorite animal. In her dream, they are huge galaxies with many little legs that are so far away they cannot be reached.
Estela f loats on her back as she watches the jellyfish drift away. When they are gone, she notices how tiring it is to swim in space. She sits on one of Saturn’s rings to rest. Estela swings her feet as she hums. Everything is beautiful, so full of light and uniqueness. Diving into the Universe has its wonders, but Estela begins to miss her bed.
Estela’s ship was left behind on the moon. “How will I swim back?” She starts to get cold and she is hungry. She is a brave girl but the Universe is infinite. Feeling a little scared, Estela looks down. From here, the Earth looks like a conch shell. She then remembers that this is only a dream. She takes off her helmet and prepares to dive. With a big jump, she begins the descent.
On the way back to Earth, Estela sees nebula corals, a school of comet fish, a Milky Way eel, and a black hole full of sharks. When she crosses the atmosphere, Estela extends her arms. Like the space capsules from her books, Estela will have to do a water landing. Six meters from the sea, she takes a deep breath. She twists like an Olympic diver. The sea welcomes her with a great splash.
Estela kicks in her dreams. Flips to the right f lops to the left. Mother smiles and lies down next to her. Estela yawns a little, hugs her whale, and prepares for another interstellar trip. If Sea Estelas are like this, what will Sky Estelas be like?
Sky Stars. Sea Stars was completed in October 2021 at the Monte Gatito offices. This book is set in Alegreya and Alegreya sc, designed by Huerta Tipográfica foundry.