The droning sound of my alarm clock shattered the peacefulness of my dreams, and I groggily hit the off button and then proceeded to stretch, stifling a yawn. The dim glow of the alarm clock read 6:00AM, and the sun had yet to rise. There was a lovely pink that colored the sky from my open bedroom window and a small draft of air carried my white curtains from their rest at the frame. It was 6:15AM before I managed to roll...

There were little fireflies in the dark sky, and that's how I knew it was nighttime. Momma called them stars, and I always loved looking up at them. There was also an enormous white will-o'-the-wisp that watched over the fireflies, but Momma called it the moon. Momma sometimes let me sit outside the place where we sleep to look up at the stars with her, and that's what I was doing now. The place was peaceful. Many others...

The universe is a cold, dark place. It goes on, forever, and ever, and there's nothing we can do about it. There's nothing that can change the fact that one day, the stars will go out, one by one, dying as they fade from the sky we so desperately love. We look up and see death, the slow death of the universe as stars explode, or get swallowed up by black holes, or get overrun by alien races we know nothing about. And yet,...