Author: Neille Williams

“Gramps, a star just fell out of the sky!”
Billie hollered out to her Grandpa, who had just poured his second whiskey and was reclining against the kitchen bench.
“Sweetie,” he began, ambling over as she pressed her eager face against the window glass, “stars don’t just fall out of the sky, you know. Their gravity tries to collapse them but their core’s temperature pushes out at the same time, so they stay up there in space. Everything balances out!”
Billie whirled around to look her grandpa squarely in the face.
“So, why did one just land in our yard?”
She blinked her blue eyes furiously at him and put one jaunty hand on her hip. At nine years of age, she had inherited his love of all things floating in outer space. She’d also inherited his stubbornness and would not be dismissed until she got the perfect answer. He didn’t go out to the yard much since Billie’s Grandma had passed, content with his pleasant memories of her gardening, snipping, watering, carefully picking aphids off beautiful, blooming roses. Sighing, he took Billie by the hand to check the yard.
The moon-bathed enclosure seemed otherworldly, dusty beams exploring every inch of the garden as the two stood, peering into the depths. Everything seemed as he had left it, unkempt rosebuds poking their sleepy heads up from the grass. It took a few seconds to process things fully, indeed, one generous glass plus an extra gulp of whiskey did not make for a completely clear head. When complete cognition seized him, he heard Billie squeal and the rush of wind-whipped growing things seemed as loud as a lion’s roar. Things were moving – no, not everything – just the natural unchecked flower-blooms which had claimed this territory for themselves after their gardener had deserted them. Before his eyes, the roses grew massive, their pungent heady aroma all around him, oppressive and sickly-sweet.
“Look, Gramps – it’s the star!”
Billie pointed into the midst of the yard, where a black rock flecked with silver sat gleaming in the moonlight. As they watched, it seemed to shrink and grow dull, the life-force of it fading away. With as much fascination as shock, Gramps realised it was nourishing the roses; they were gigantic and cartoonish now, swarming all over the yard.

Everything balances out.

Above them, the stem of an enormous rose held its petals aloft like a strange offering to the stars. In an instant, they lost the moonlight; and he felt the first soft puncture on his leg, then more biting into soft exposed flesh. Billie screamed and he wondered just how large the aphids were now.

Everything balances out.

He reached out to find Billie but nothing was left of her, and soon, like the ancient stars that once claimed the sky, nothing would be left of him either. The aphids tore holes in him then burrowed deep, and the core of him grew cold, like a star collapsing into a hole of endless space and time.