What a lot of people don’t know about stars is that they work very hard. They have a job just like most people only their working day is our night and their night time is our day. This can be confusing to begin with but once the stars get used to it they usually do fine. What is their job? Well their job is to stand perfectly still in the sky and shine as brightly as they can to look beautiful for everybody on Earth to look at and enjoy. They would say that they have a special responsibility to try to look particularly beautiful and wondrous when little children look skywards to them.

It is normal for the working day of a star to begin just when children are going to bed so they work all night as children sleep and in the morning when children wake they have gone off duty and can relax.

Two stars that lived very close to each other were called Castor and Pollox. Castor is old and wise and Pollox is young and restless. When the working day would start for the two stars it was always Castor who reminded Pollox that it was time to begin.

“Begin what” Pollox would shriek  “another 12 hours of standing perfectly still and shining as bright as we can?”

“Exactly” Castor would wearily recount “Just like every day, just like you keep asking me every day” remember that for the stars the day is our night. So this is how the conversation would go.

One night, or day in stars language, Pollox was feeling very mischievous “I am going to wiggle, today” he said

“No No No you mustn’t” said Castor “Please don’t make trouble, please behave like a good star and keep still”

Pollux  didn’t wiggle that day (night for us) but when his shift was over and Castor was sleeping he decided he would have a go at moving around a little. Incredibly for Pollox he found that he could indeed move and he swept around in big circles and then in small circles and he went from one end of the galaxy to another, as he did so he met many other stars who he realized were also moving around. He was fascinated and very happy, he made friends will other stars and they all told him “Just make sure that you are in position when our day starts (that is nighttime for children) so that you will be in place to shine brightly”

This new freedom kept Pollox happy for a long time, but because he is a restless star he began to get bored with only moving at night (that is day for us) and started to think about moving during his day. “Please don’t do it” implored Castor “Don’t you see that if you move during our work day which is dark on earth all the children will see you moving in the sky and they will be frightened that something has gone wrong.

Pollox managed to stay still again, but that night (day for us) he met with some friends and dared all of them to think about moving during the stars day. They were mostly horrified but nevertheless Pollox had got them thinking. As time went by a few

of his friends began to really consider making a break with their long standing tradition and they began to plot their day of movement. Great excitement was building as the day of action came nearer. The number of Pollox’s friends that were now

signed up to moving was hundreds and hundreds in fact stars which Pollox had never even met had heard about the excitement and also decided they would join in.

Finally the day had come (night for us remember) and as the children were preparing for bed, having baths, brushing teeth, pulling on pajamas and settling into little blue beds. The stars were getting ready to move. On a signal from Pollox they all swirled around the sky, the sight from earth was amazing, all the children ran to the windows and looked up at the sky to see the beautiful sight. They weren’t frightened at all because they understood very well how difficult it is to stand perfectly still for any length of time. Unfortunately all the grown up people were not so clever, in fact they became very frightened and sirens began to sound and police cars began screeching around the streets and special news reports were coming over the radio and television. “The world is ending, the world is ending” they were shouting. When the stars began to notice all the commotion they had caused they quickly went back to their places and stood still until all the grown ups had calmed down and gone to sleep.

The children were very happy with the display, but the stars realized that they would have to be very careful about how they behaved in future. They had a big meeting and they decided that they would only allow one star at a time to move from now on and the lucky star would have to follow a strict path so the grown ups on earth would be able to call it a comet and not get frightened.

Nowadays when comets are seem grown ups do not get frightened but they do like to watch, but the children all know that it isn’t really a comet but a restless star off for a run about.

Copyright TJB Mar98