{Xytar looks upward.}
At night I still search for our sun.
I know where it should be.
Beyond that bright star.
A little to the left.
There.
Nothing.
But somewhere beyond that darkness, on my planet the moons are rising over the silver mountains.
The rivers are glowing.
The kel flowers that only bloom at night.
Perhaps my brother is crossing the southern bridge.
Perhaps my mother is standing beneath those glowing birds.
Perhaps someone looks up and thinks of me.
[Pause.]
But morning will come here soon.
That fierce Texas sun will climb over the highway. The cicadas will start their racket. Trucks will thunder past. Dust will get into everything I own.
And perhaps—
perhaps I will learn to like some of it.
[Looks at the cactus.]
You survive here.
Maybe you can teach me.
I could learn these roads. Learn the birds. Learn why humans put ice in every drink and drive loud machines everywhere they go.
Perhaps someday I will hear a coyote at night and answer back.
Perhaps the wind through this dry grass will stop reminding me of Lake Orra.
Perhaps it will simply sound like Texas.
[Pause.]
I will never stop looking for that little place between the stars.
But tomorrow…
I think I’ll walk down that road.
There is a town six miles from here.
A woman at the gas station said they make something called breakfast tacos.
She said I should try one.
{Looks back at the stars.}
So.
I suppose this is how a new life begins.
Not with a spaceship but with a road.
With sunrise.
And a breakfast.
{Starts walking, then stops.}
I hope those tacos aren’t too spicy.
{Blackout}
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