The Sun, Moon, and Stars

The train groaned as it climbed the mountain, its brass pistons pumping beneath a sky full of drifting clouds.

Inside the polished wooden carriage sat three cats.

They were an unusual trio.

The orange tabby wore a tiny leather aviator cap and brass goggles pushed up onto his forehead. Beside him, a dignified gray cat sat upright in a velvet coat, his pocket watch ticking beneath a row of polished copper buttons. Across from them lounged a black-and-white stray wearing a patched top hat, one paw resting lazily on the armrest.

Through the great round window, the world rolled by.

Green hills disappeared beneath clouds. Tiny villages appeared and vanished. Birds flew alongside the train for a moment before turning toward distant forests.

The orange cat watched them carefully.

“I am grateful for curious company,” he said.

The gray cat glanced over.

“Curious company?”

“Yes,” said the orange cat. “The birds that come to sing. The little creatures who appear without invitation. Even the stray cats who beg for food and then decide they have always belonged beside you.”

The black-and-white cat smiled.

“I have considerable experience with that.”

Outside, the wind rushed along the train, whispering through the pipes and chimneys.

The cats fell silent.

There was something in the wind that sounded almost like a secret.

Perhaps it was telling them about forests they had never seen, oceans beyond the horizon, or distant cities where enormous mechanical towers touched the clouds.

The gray cat opened his pocket watch.

But instead of numbers, its tiny brass face displayed the phases of the moon.

He smiled.

“The sun,” he said.

The orange cat looked upward.

“The moon.”

The black-and-white cat gazed through the window as the first stars appeared in the evening sky.

“And the stars.”

For a moment, none of them spoke.

The great locomotive carried them onward, wheels turning steadily beneath them, steam rising into the twilight.

Clouds changed shape above the mountains.

One became a ship.

Another looked like a castle.

Another, to the amusement of the cats, looked remarkably like an enormous sleeping mouse.

The three cats laughed.

And as the train disappeared into the gathering night, they realized they had everything they needed.

A warm seat.

A little food.

Good company.

A window through which to watch the changing world.

And the mysterious journey itself.

Sometimes, they thought, the greatest blessings are not the things we possess.

They are the things that simply appear beside us—

a bird singing,

a stray cat sleeping in the sun,

a breeze whispering through the trees,

a cloud changing shape,

a moon rising over the mountains,

and a train carrying curious travelers toward somewhere they had never been.

The cats settled deeper into their seats.

The engine hissed.

The brass gauges glowed softly.

And beneath the stars, the steampunk train continued onward into the unknown.