Lina loved the night. Every night, she sat by her window and looked at the sky. She held her small notebook and her favorite pencil. She counted the stars one by one. “One, two, three…” she whispered softly. Lina remembered something her father told her before. Her father said her mother would come from heaven to visit her when the stars in the sky reached 100. Lina believed her mother was smiling down at her from above.
Some nights, the
clouds hid the stars, and Lina felt a little sad. But her father always patted
her back gently. “Don’t worry, the stars are still there,” father said.
So Lina kept counting on clear nights. She drew tiny stars in her notebook
whenever she counted a new one. Her classmates at school thought Lina had a
hobby of sketching. They did not know it was her secret mission of love.
One calm Friday
night, the sky was bright like glitter. Lina counted carefully again. “Ninety-eight…
ninety-nine…” Her heart jumped like a small drum. Then she saw one more
shining star, the brightest of all. “One hundred!” she said happily.
Suddenly, a warm breeze touched her cheek, soft and gentle, like a hug. Lina
closed her eyes and smiled. She could not see her mother, but she felt
her—light as the wind, gentle as starlight, and full of love. Under the 100
stars, Lina knew heaven was not far away.