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Many years ago, a young girl had gone on a grand adventure on a whim. At the time she had no idea of how that adventure would change her, but something inside her had pushed her forward all the same.
It was only after she'd traveled the stars for one hundred years and arrived back where she started that she truly understood what had happened. When she was a child she had to use her father's telescope to peer out into the stars, but by the time she had come home she could stare out across space all on her own.
And so, as her shimmering comet home came close to the beautiful blue planet she once called home she focused her vision on a familiar hilltop... And for the first time in decades she started to cry.
While her home still stood, the tree on the hill no longer did. And in its place was a row of three flat stones. Even though she couldn't read the fronts, she knew in her heart what they represented.
When she left home, she left her father and brother behind. She had long ago accepted that her mother no longer dwelt in this world, but a part of her expected she'd see her remaining family upon her return.
“Mama?” a small and innocent voice brought her back to the present, and made her realize she'd fallen to her knees as she wept, “why are star bits falling from your eyes?”
She couldn't help but laugh at the innocence of the question, that reminded her of a distant memory...
“I'm fine,” she replied with a soft smile, “I just remembered something important...”
It didn't take long to reassure the young Luma that their mother was okay. With just a few soothing words and a kiss on the forehead her child was back to their usual happy self.
That night, she looked into the mirror in her room and wondered...
As she continued to look at her home planet she had noticed so many people. Little children running around, like she had with her brother, and being watched over by parents and grandparents.
How long did it take to become a grandparent? She'd never thought to ask, before she left. In the mirror she saw a woman who looked almost exactly like the mother from her memories... Was that right?
She'd been so focused on being a good mother to her star children she'd hardly had time to notice that she had stopped being a child herself at some point. And somehow, her family back home had left the world in that time.
Before long, her home was behind her. Her questions had no answers, because there was nobody around for her to ask them.
She resolved herself to continuing to be the best mother she could be, and she put her questions aside.
One hundred more years passed.
Once more she stared out at the world she used to call home. The place she used to live remained, but a lot about the world had changed. She looked out over the world, trying to take it all in. Trying to remember how it had all looked the last time. In the end she realized how little she'd been paying attention that first time. She resolved to do better next time.
She spent the hundred years between visits thinking back on what she'd seen and writing it down in her journals, that way she'd have something to compare it to.
But when her visit came once more, she had a surprise waiting for her.
As her comet home approached, and she looked down on the world, she saw a great many people bustling about. She watched curiously as they worked, all set with a buzzing of anticipation. This was very much unlike her last visit and, she was sure, the one before.
And then as if by magic, just when her comet home came the closest and her view was clearest, when she stared down at the people below they stared back.
Hundreds of people all looking to the sky with looks of joy and wonder on their faces.
She had, of course, noticed a few people seeming to look back at her on her previous visit, but had assumed it was a coincidence. But this...
As she looked down on them she now knew they looked up at her. And in some small way, she was still a part of her home.
That visit, she left her old home with a heart full of warmth.