The Boy Who Planted Stars

Once upon a time, in a very small village, where nights were darker than ink, there lived a quiet small boy called Tony. Every evening, Tony would climb the hill behind his father's house, carrying a small box with him.

Anyone who came across him would laugh at him.
They would say. "There he goes again to the hill, planting nothing".

But Tony always believed in himself, that he was planting stars.

Inside his small box were tiny glow beads that Tony had saved from broken bracelets and old toys of his.

Every night, Tony buried one at the top of the hill and whispered a wish not for himself, but for someone else who is closer to his heart in the village. For the woman who had lost her husband. For the children who feared the dark. For the baker who always tried.

Days, weeks, and months passed. Nothing changed.

Then on one certain evening again, he went to the hill, and a heavy storm cut off all electricity in the village. The village became dark. People stayed indoors throughout the night.

Small lights began to glow from the hill slowly.

Then the buried beads shimmered through the soil, one by one, lighting a gentle path up the slope. The way the hill sparkled it was like a piece of the sky had fallen down to the earth.

The villagers who were all afraid to step outside, all came out of their various houses in wonder.

And there stood Tony, smiling quietly beneath the shining lights.

The villagers then realised that sometimes the smallest acts of kindness, planted patiently, become the brightest stars when the world needs them the most as we have needed them in our small village.