Stars That Shine Brightest
Beau came into the new bedroom that Wesley had been fixing up for him and Tommy in his new house and grinned.
“Whoa!” he exclaimed as he looked around the large room. There were two twin beds on one side of the room with a window overlooking the backyard between them. The closet was on the far wall, and a small desk with a chair was beside it. They even had their own bathroom!
“You like it?” Wesley asked him from where he stood, hanging a poster displaying the Vols football team on the freshly painted blue walls.
“Yeah!”
“C’mere, check this out,” Wesley motioned for him to follow him over to the other side of the room across from the beds, where he had set up a TV on a stand and put two small, identical recliners in front of it. Wesley picked up the remote and turned the TV on just as Tommy bounded into the room and came to a stop beside them.
“Cool!” The fourteen-year-old looked around in awe at all the stuff Wesley had added before turning his attention to the TV, where the Playstation logo had just appeared on the screen. “No way!”
“Yes, way!” Wesley smiled brightly. “I figured this way you’d have something to do when y’all came over. I got some games, too.” He pointed to the doors of the stand. “They’re all in there.”
“Can I look?” Beau asked.
“Sure, Squirt, they’re yours.”
Beau headed over and opened the doors before he started pulling out several different games and thinking about which one he wanted to play first.
“Don’t tell Anna,” Wesley said conspiratorial, “but I’m trying to get a pinball machine. This guy down the road has one for sale.”
“Nice!” Tommy looked around and noticed that Wesley’s trophy case was also in the room. “I see Anna wouldn’t let you put that in the living room,” he said with a grin.
Wesley rolled his eyes. “Nope. She thinks it takes up too much space.” He moved over to the beds, where he picked up a package of glow-in-the-dark stars and planets that he’d bought from the store that morning. Then he pulled the desk chair over and stood on it so that he could reach the ceiling.
“Hey, whatcha doin’?” asked Beau as he left the games to rejoin his brothers.
“I’m puttin’ up these stars, so you’ll have a little light in here at night. The blue we picked out for the paint turned out a little darker than we thought it would, so it gets pretty dark in here.”
Beau scowled. “I don’t need no dumb stars, Wesley. I ain’t a baby.”
Wesley looked down at him with a lazy grin. “I didn’t say you were. I just figured you might not like it being pitch black in here.”
“I ain’t scared—”
“Uh, Beau,” Tommy suddenly spoke up from beside him. He put a hand on his arm and was pulling him towards the door, “I need to talk to you a minute. We’ll be back, Wes.”
Beau struggled to get out of his older brother's grasp, but Tommy’s hold was firm, and he didn’t let go until they were out into the hallway. “What’d ya pull me outta there for?” Beau demanded as Tommy dropped down on one knee in front of him so that they were closer to eye level. He bit his bottom lip and looked around him towards the bedroom door as if he were afraid they would be overheard.
“Listen, Beau. I need you to not say nothin’ about the stars, okay?”
Beau looked at him with a frown. Truthfully, he was still a little afraid of the dark, but he didn’t want anyone to know that. “Why?”
“Because...uh, well, I just... um,” Tommy seemed to be unsure of what to say, and he looked away, tilting his head down so that his little brother couldn’t see him. “I’m kinda afraid of the dark,” he mumbled.
Beau sucked in a breath, and his eyes went wide. “You?!”
Tommy nodded slowly, “Please don’t say nothing. I don’t want Wesley to know.”
Beau considered him for a moment before saying, “How come I didn’t know you were before now?”
“Well, it ain’t like I go around broadcasting it, but if you must know, I keep the tv on in my room at night.”
Beau frowned. He did remember coming in there a few times to see the tv on, but he had always just thought Tommy was staying up late to watch it.
“Are you gonna help me out here, or what, Squirt?”
“Okay,” Beau said with a sigh. “I won’t tell nobody.”
Tommy stood up and ruffled Beau’s dark hair, “Thanks, Beau.”
They walked back down the hall and into the bedroom where Wesley was waiting, the stars still in his hands though he hadn’t put any more on the ceiling yet.
“It’s okay, Wes,” Beau said as he looked up at the little yellow stars. “You can leave ‘em up.”
Wesley looked over at Tommy, who still stood leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed over his chest. “Oh, really? What changed your mind?”
“Nothin’,” Beau replied as he dropped down onto the bed furthest from the door and laid back on the pillow. “Glow-in-the-dark stuff is just kinda cool, that’s all.”
Wesley grinned, “You got that right, kiddo.” He went back to attach the stars to the ceiling while Tommy went to check out the games.
That night, Tommy and Beau spent their first night with Wesley, Anna, and baby Tj in their new house, and as Wesley shut the lights off and closed the door, the stars illuminated the inky blackness of the room.
It would be several years before it would dawn on Beau that he had been tricked, but by that time, Tommy would have done a million other things for Beau that would further prove that he shined brighter than any stars stuck to the ceiling.
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