34

“Are you a sorcerer?”
“Yes, yes I am.”
“What kind?”
“The kind that wakes up in love and goes to bed in love. The kind that follows the trail of butterflies, hoping to find a colony of starseeds—or perhaps earthlings who dream of the stars.”

“And where do you live?”

“The walls of my home are woven from clouds. I gathered them one night while riding a comet—it was surprisingly simple. I dipped myself in honey, and the clouds wrapped around me like a gentle embrace.

Carefully, I brought them down to Earth, tucked them into my drawer, and in the morning, I spread them out like a blanket.

The following night, I was swimming in a nebula, drifting through stardust, when I looked down and saw a dragonfly lighting a fire at the bottom of the ocean.

I quickly borrowed some, and now my floors are always warm.

Another time, I noticed a single wing descending from the Pleiades on a string. Curious, I asked what they were doing. They replied that they had moved into a star and come to build themselves new windows but ran out of Water.

That’s how my windows were made. Now, every morning, I wake up to the soothing music of the Black Sea.”

“What about your roof?”

“My roof? Without one, I can reach out every night and pull the night sky over me as I sleep. And every morning, I wake up bathed in sunlight.”

“But what if it rains?”

“When it rains, I use an umbrella made of dandelions. I got it once while visiting Pluto. An old market vendor gave it to me, saying it was the last one he had, and it was too heavy for him to carry around any longer. I paid him two fairy eyelashes for it.”

“And how old are you?”

“They say I’m 34 here, but I’m not so sure about that. Some days, I feel much younger, and on others, much older. Most of the time, though, I feel like I have no age at all. I feel like I am a mere veil and that wind and life sway me in all directions.”

“And why did you come here?”

“Ah, that’s an easy one. I came to find someone. Once, we were racing to catch a comet’s trail, a path from Saturn’s rings to Orion. We were about to witness a satellite slice through the sky. Our bags were heavy with some asteroids we got as souvenirs, and just as we were about to leap on, he slipped and tumbled through a black hole. I’ve been searching for him ever since.

I’ve found him in a few lifetimes, but he doesn’t remember any of them.”

“Do you think he’ll ever remember?”

“Of course. It’s as much his destiny to remember as it is mine to help him do so.”