'Till the End of Time

I’ve always considered myself rather lucky, more than most people anyways… one of those people being my little brother Taylor. I have thought of myself as luckier than him ever since I was ten, it was a week or so before Christmas, Taylor was only eight. He had been so excited about Christmas, we were going to stay up and wait for Santa that year, it was the first time our parents said we could. But he’d started to feel sick, on Christmas eve he passed out and my dad rushed him to the hospital. I stayed home with my mom; both of us were worried, I didn’t want to Taylor to be sick or hurt. We were best friends, we hardly ever got into arguments and we always hung around each other. That day was the day we found out that Taylor had a cancer.

It’s three years later now, I’m thirteen and Taylor is eleven he celebrated his birthday a couple days ago. Taylor’s in the hospital right now, but he might be out again. Ever since that, Christmas Taylor’s been in and out of the hospital. I hate it every time he has to go in there. But everyday after school I go and visit him and we talk about lots of stuff, I tell him about school and he tells me all about his day. It mostly involves him reading something in a book or seeing something out the window or that they took a few more tests, but I listen to him.

“Sarah,” Taylor called me over to him. “Did you know that some of the stars you’re looking at right now burned out millions of years ago, maybe billions!” I smiled, I had known this but I didn’t want to tell him that.

“That’s really cool.” I told him and watched him grin at the fact that he knew something I did not. I turned to the window and stared out at the stars, I knew how much he loved the stars, the moon, and the night. He’d always been fascinated by what’s way out there. “Anything else about the stars?” I asked him wanting to hear more.

He grinned. “Lots. Look right there.” He pointed at a group of stars in the sky. “That’s Orion.”

“Orion?”

He nodded. “Yep, and the stars making the line right there, that’s his belt.” He told me and then pointed at a star just beside Orion. “That’s Sirius, it’s the Dog Star.” I sighed as my eyes scanned the sky, I’d known that too, but you knew most of this stuff if you took grade six science.

“Sarah,” He began quietly, almost sadly. “I’ve always wished I was near the stars, I’ve never wanted anything more than that.” I looked down, he was thinking about his illness again, He was thinking about how he had cancer and would never be able to go to the stars, I wanted to comfort him, but found I had nothing to say. I didn’t know if his dream would ever come true, I didn’t even know If he would be alive tomorrow. His chances of survival weren’t improving much, and I didn’t know what would happen. I wished it would, I hoped it would… but I didn’t know.

A week later I learned some terrible news Taylor wasn’t going to make it, he would die. I went to see him that day, and he looked far to weak for anyone his age, but somehow he still found the energy to smile at me.

“Hi” He greeted me and took a deep breath. “You heard the news.” I nodded. “Good, you should know I’m going to die. Better than waking up one day and finding out that I’m gone.” I tried to hold back tears as he spoke, but I found myself barely able to do it. “I don’t want to go. I don’t want to leave, I wish it wouldn’t happen Sarah, I really do.”

“I know.” I told him as a couple of tears leaked from my eyes. “But you can’t do anything about it. I can’t do anything, no one can.”

He nodded sadly. “I just wish that I could’ve gone to the stars. And seen them a little bit closer.”
I let a few more tears fall. “Maybe, you can. I remember a while back you told me that when you die, you become a star.”

He smiled and thought about this for a moment. “And I’ll be there forever, watching over you.”

I nodded more tears streaking my face. “Always, I love you.”

“I love you too Sarah.” Taylor told me.

Our conversation after that was mostly Taylor telling me about the stars and pointed out constellations. I remember that conversation very well, it was probably one of the most memorable conversation of my entire life. Taylor died a month later, but I’ll always remember him. Every time I stare at the stars, I know that he is one of them watching me ‘till the end of time.