That Thursday evening, the temperatures had fallen way more than the last few nights. The fall season was about to end, while a new cold front was rapidly hugging the lands. All the kids in town were wearing comfortable clothes, and so was Robert, a young boy from the city of Winnipeg. He would often put on his favorite blue jacket, once the climate would begin to show signs of transformation.
The hours of the night were passing by quick, while Robert was working on his homework for the next day. One of his favorite assignments was to connect the stars into the constellations based on the night sky observation. Astronomy was on of his favorite subjects; he loved it so much that Robert was able to name most the stars in the night sky. Even his dog was named Starcos, a combination of the words Star and Cosmos; two meaningful things to Robert.
Right after it was the time for the stars to decorate the dark sky, the youngster took his notebook and map of constellations and approached the window with the joy to finish his favorite homework. He glanced over, but quickly lost the rush of happiness he felt a moment ago.
The stars of the night were lost in all the white haze of the city sky. All the lights that humans used had created this opaque cloud, which barely could let Robert see anything up there at night.
He stared again at his notebook and sky map, but the task would be impossible to complete without seeing any of the stars in the night sky.
The Labraheeler dog, Starcos, was staring at Robert and seemed confused at the situation. But by the looks in his eyes, it seemed that he knew that his human friend was not very joyful at that time.
Starcos suddenly barked a few times, in an attempt to grab the boy's attention. Robert looked at him and knelt down to feel his soft fur. The dog then swiftly pushed his head against Robert's hands and headed towards the door, increasing his speed.
The boy without thinking twice, started to chase his friend; first in the hallway and then towards the stairs that led to the front door. Holding his notebook and map with one hand, the young kid was having a hard time following up with Starcos. In the quiet neighborhood, you could easily hear the sound of their feet hitting the ground.
At that point Robert was unsure where his dog was heading, but he felt that his friend wanted to show him something. After a few minutes of running, the dog was ahead of Robert and in front of them was the power station for a large portion of the city. Starcos stopped in front of it and turned his head towards Robert, while him a nod towards the sky. Then, he quickly jumped the fence and disappeared inside the metal transformers of the station.
The boy shouted "NOOO, STARCOS!!!" and sprinted quickly to catch his friend, even though he was almost breathless from exhaustion. As he was getting closer, his view was suddenly lit with sparkles, after that a loud noise came from the station. Instantly everything was static.
Robert was on his knees.
He started looking at his celestial map with tearful eyes. Then, he glanced up in the sky to see the brightest stars he had ever seen; just shiny dots in pure darkness.
The sky had one more star that night...
