Stella Loses Her Twinkle

Stella the star woke up one evening, looked at herself, and made a small alarmed sound. Her twinkle had gone.

She tried to twinkle. She blinked. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried very hard. Nothing happened. She was, for the first time in her life, just a sort of dull yellow shape against the sky.

"Oh dear," said Stella.

She floated down — very slowly, very carefully — to ask for help. The first creature she met was the moon. The moon was Moonie, of course, and she was sleepy as usual.

"Lost your twinkle?" said Moonie. "How interesting. Have you checked the bottom of your sock?"

Stella did not have socks. But she pretended to look anyway, because Moonie was being kind, and politeness matters.

She floated down further and met a cat on a fence. The cat was Mochi, of course, and she was supervising the evening.

"Lost your twinkle?" said Mochi, slowly. "Have you checked the laundry basket?"

Stella thanked Mochi. She had not, in fact, checked the laundry basket. But the more important thing was that Mochi had asked.

She floated down even further, all the way to the ground, and met an owl wearing a small scarf. The owl was Pip, of course, and she was just about to begin her evening.

"Lost your twinkle?" said Pip. "Have you checked behind your ear?"

Stella reached behind her ear. There, tucked neatly into a small fold, was her twinkle — a small bright thing about the size of a pea. It had simply migrated while she slept. This happened sometimes, when stars slept facing the wrong way.

She placed her twinkle carefully back where it belonged. Light returned. The night brightened by exactly one Stella.

"Thank you, Pip," said Stella.

"Always," said Pip. And she meant it.

Stella floated back up to her spot in the sky and went on with her evening — finding lost boots, lost mittens, lost ships, and the right pages of the right books, for all the small things that needed her on the ground below.