A Falling Star

Others call it hard work. She calls it fate. She is alone again lying on her warm bed—the only thing who knows all her dreams and secrets. It is time for her again to be intimate with the stars as she stares at them through her century-old broken glass window. It gives her comfort. It gives her hope. Until a luminous line was suddenly drawn in the serene sky. It was a falling star. She never wasted any moment and whispered her greatest dream to the celestial genie. “Wealth and power,” she whispered while putting her two palms together. That was the beginning of her life. She met a man who gave her everything a woman could ever wish to have— a majestic mansion, silk gowns, one-of-a-kind paintings, and elegant pieces of jewelry. The glitter on her luxurious shoe collection reminds her of the stars she used to look at when she was still 16. She cannot believe how she became the brightest star in an instant. The brightest, that her glow already blinded a lot of people, but she did not mind.

She is willing to clean any bloodstain of her selfish deeds so as not to obstruct her radiance. She wanted all the loud, powerful, rebellious voices to be silenced, but the sound of an empty stomach ruled, and it was the only sound that mattered to her. Until the day she feared came. Her downfall. It is painful for her to watch her own light slowly dying when she knows she was once the brightest. She ran until no one could see her. She ran with dismay, shame, and anger. But she will be back and deceive everyone again by playing the victim. Others might call it a return, but she will call it a revenge.

- Roger Sibag Jr.