"Elphie! Come on!"
I dragged Elphaba out of her bed. She had on her shapeless gray shift, I wore my white nightgown. Her eyes were bleary with sleep; I was nearly bursting with excitement.
"What is it?" She sounded grumpy, but was that really a surprise?
I pulled her through the halls and out the dormitory doors. If someone caught us outside after hours, we'd be in very big trouble. I didn't care.
I brought her to the vegetable gardens, behind the kitchen. The grass, still warm, almost, from the day before, curled around my bare feet. I told her to look to the sky.
"Wait a moment, Elphie. In a moment…"
And then a star fell. "The stars are falling tonight, Elphie."
The sky was pitch black, darker than anything I could imagine. The stars were brighter than I'd ever seen them, so many millions of tiny lights. When one fell… it seemed so insignificant, for one in a million to fall. And yet, we saw it. Maybe, I considered, when a star falls, it wants to be noticed. Nobody notices a star until it falls.
"Where do they go, Elphie?"
"The stars. Where do the stars go when they fall?"
She was silent, as if thinking. Then she said, "Only the stars know."
I paused, considered it. Another one streaked across the sky. So beautiful, and yet so fleeting.
"Is it true," I asked, "That when you wish on a falling star, it comes true?"
Elphaba sighed. "I don't know."
"Try it. Wish for something."
She stopped, as if thinking. "A s-" but she cut herself off. "What would you wish for, Galinda?"
Without thinking, I replied, "You." I hadn't meant to say that. Yes, I'd thought about it, all the time. I hadn't meant to say it. She'd hate me now.
As another star fell, Elphaba looked down into my eyes. The moon, almost bright enough to make a shadow, reflected in her eyes. Then she leaned down and kissed me.
Oh… it was wonderful. The grass swayed around our feet and the stars came crashing down above us, and she wrapped her arms around me and kissed me kissed me kissed me. It was everything I could've dreamed of. And more. That moment… it was a wish come true.
Glinda woke from her dream- or was it a memory? - sweating, her stomach clenching in on itself. She sat up, climbed out from between silk sheets and woven blankets. She settled herself on the picture window, where she always sat when she couldn't sleep. She looked to the sky, as if maybe, maybe she'd find advice there. The stars weren't as bright, what with the bustle of the cities below her.
Elphaba died that night, though Glinda wouldn't find out until the morning. She sat in that seat all night, wondering about Elphaba. What had happened to her? Where was she now? Did she love her?
Glinda looked up at the sky. A star fell, dipping down, and then it was gone.
Elphaba was gone; there was nothing Glinda could do about it. The green girl… she'd always wanted attention; it was really all she wanted. Attention, and love. Maybe that's why she'd fallen so. After all, nobody notices one person, among a million people, until their downfall. In a dark world, Elphie really had been a light, unnoticed, and flickering as strong as she could. And then, she'd fallen, like a star.
Glinda thought back, remembering the wish she'd made in that memory. She'd wished for Elphaba.
Maybe wishes come true. Glinda should've wished to have Elphaba with her, forever, for her whole life. She should've wished on a falling star, wished that they could've stayed, lived, loved, died together.
Did Elphaba get her wish? Who knows? Elphaba never thought of herself. She never finished her wish. Maybe Elphaba should've wished for a long life.
It was too late for should-haves. Elphaba had fallen, beautiful and fleeting. She was gone.
And where do the stars go when they fall?
Only the stars know.