The Book of Stars

Penny:
Listen children, if you learn to touch early in the morning, you will have brave touchings and golden sunsets. Otherwise, I can only promise... sunsets.

Penny:
Now I know why Mary made the book of stars. Every time I turn these pages I think about what she taught me. The best gifts are given in secret and each of us writes our own endings.

Penny:
All my memories begin here, in the pages of my sister's book. Looking back I remember how Mary filled it with laughter, smiles, and magic. But I didn't understand any of that, I only believed in forgetting until Mary taught me how to turn the pages of my own life.

Penny:
Now you owe me a secret.

Mary:
Okay, now ask me "What just happened?"

Penny:
What just happened?

Mary:
...Not telling!

Mary:
Well, I was looking at this star, I guess it was a sun; it was shining down on a paper forest of paper trees and paper flowers. We were lying in a field and you said you liked these flowers because they wouldn't die but I said, "That's why they're ugly."

Mary:
I don't think he speaks English.

Penny:
Well, that's rude!

Mary:
[about Penny] I don't know if you can tell by meeting her, but... She's a genius.

Mary:
It's funny, what you say about your country, how it doesn't exist. It's kind of like that with me and Penny.

Mary:
I never remember anything besides beginnings and endings. Why is it that the ending is always the most beautiful part?

Mary:
Can I hear something in your language?

Kristjan:
What shall I say?

Mary:
I don't know. How about..."I love you."

Kristjan:
"I love you" is "Volim te".

Mary:
...That's nice.

Kristjan:
Do you only put sad things in your book?

Mary:
No, not just sad... It's my book of beautiful things.

Mary:
Tell me again about the beach.

Penny:
We lived there all year round with mom and dad. In the winter the beach was completely empty and you and I had it to ourselves and it felt like... infinity. You'll see when we go there.

Kristjan:
You have beautiful eyes... but... empty.

Penny:
Well, then I guess I'm empty.

Mary:
Look at me! I'm almost sixteen years old and I'm nothing but a big overgrown baby!

Professor:
What happened to you Penny? What turns a brilliant, brilliant girl into... this woman that you are?

Penny:
You know how you can still see a star long after it's dead? The light keeps coming and it's just an illusion, the star doesn't exist...

Mary:
This is what I'm gonna miss the most.

Penny:
What?

Mary:
You and me.

Mary:
Penny, there's a story I want to tell you it's about a man and how he loved this woman very much. And they were going to get married, only it turned out the woman got very, very sick and they said without her treatments she would quickly die.

Penny:
Who told you this story?

Mary:
Just listen. So, he did the only thing he knew to do. He took her away from the hospital and the awful treatments, but he was scared. They both knew that she didn't have much time and then she asked him to take her to their special place, this beautiful waterfall where they fell in love. It was far away from the hospital but he took her because she asked him to. They got out of the car and stood again on the edge of the falls and she just stood there real still looking out over the edge for a long time. He started to worry about her, that she was going to do something crazy like jump off.

Penny:
Did she? Did she jump?

Mary:
No. She died in his arms and he was charged with manslaughter, for kidnapping her away from all of the doctors and hospitals and pain. But on the edge of that beautiful place, she looked at him and said, "Don't feel sorry for me. I am the lucky one. Other people live in doubt and pain all their lives. But I know my love will last forever."

Penny:
...I like that story.

Penny:
What do you think he dreams?

Mary:
Who?

Penny:
Up there, all alone in space.

Mary:
Oh, baby, he's probably dreaming about you.

Prisoner:
It's strange to think I've never met you but there are pieces of you, these poems, I know by heart. Just when life seemed to matter little you braved my heart's eclipse to bathe me with your light. A thousand different yesterdays could've left me all alone. A thousand different yesterdays would not have left me bleeding where you touched me. Lost in the maze of our imagining. Lost in the harsh glare of forgetting. The sun which is always rising, is always setting.

Mary:
Do you know that I've never been on a date before?

Kristjan:
No, there should be many boys.

Mary:
Would you go on a date with me? I mean if I was older...

Kristjan:
I will go on a date with you right now.

Penny:
Really? Where will you take her?

Kristjan:
To the cinema?

Penny:
No! Pretend you've never seen her before. You first see her at a society ball and she's leaning against the, no... pining by a clear silvery fountain. What makes you wanna talk to her?

Kristjan:
Oh, I would come to her because she's lovely and how do you say um, mysterious.

Mary:
Oh no, you should never say that. American girls don't like that. It's considered an insult if you call them mysterious.

Kristjan:
Enough society lady. We meet at a simple place, we meet on the bus and you're reading a book and I sit beside you so that you will speak to me and I wait and I wait and you never speak to me. Then I say, "what is your name?"

Mary:
And then I stand and I say, "this is my stop."

Kristjan:
Then I stand and say, "this is *our* stop."

Penny:
Oh he's good!

Kristjan:
"I must see you again, my heart will die without you."

Mary:
When?

Kristjan:
I will tell you a day, Mary. And you will tell me, "this is too soon" or "too late". Tomorrow.

Mary:
...too late.