I switched on my reading light and put aside my book to make room for my clipboard stuffed with blank paper waiting to be filled. I wrote the date at the top and below it, “Today was a good day.” I looked out my window at the dark sky and brightly lit street below our second story apartment. I looked at a coffee shop named after a constellation, with its bright blue tables on the sidewalk. An employee came to the door of the shop from the inside to hang an “I’m sorry we’re closed” sign on the door. I looked up at the “neapolitan stripes” on the building beside the coffee shop. Brown, yellow and pink running from the top of the building, stopping half way where the rest of the building was painted black. I watched the cars pass and the trucks roar. A lonely biker hurrying home for a late dinner after a long day. I looked at the window directly across from mine in the neapolitan building. I exchanged a secret smile with it, though no-one would believe a window could smile if I told them. A light flickered on in the window beside it. A faint one. A string of stars strung up along the wall to keep the night at bay. I looked up at the real stars, the flaming orbs of gas beyond our atmosphere. My eyes flitted back and forth until I found The One. My star. Once I was afraid of something, something bigger than I could understand. I looked to the sky for comfort. There, I found The One. The biggest, the brightest, the first one to come out at night, the last to disappear at sunrise. Stay. That’s what I called it. It was always there when I needed it. Even after I discovered it was scientifically known as the planet Venus, I believed it was mine. My star. Stay. Our bedroom began to darken around me and my circle of light grew, so I turned back to my clipboard. I read the five, simple words I had written there. Then, I set the board on the floor beside my book. “It was a good day.” That’s all that needed to be said. I switched off my light and started to close the blinds on my window for extra protection against the cold air that blew in through the cracks. However, the descent stopped about a foot from the windowsill and I looked out one more time. I smiled at my window. I smiled at my star. I whispered to the night, “thank you.”