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Missing the StarsTHE SETTING SUN LIT THE POPLARs lining the central park of the town, their tiny medals twinkling like medals. Lupianne reached out to the lowest branch of a poplar, teasing the leaves shaped like a fat round heart.
She waved to other colonists as she walked along the edge of the Park. Her day of chores was over, but her father did not get out. He would be running tests until late in the evening.
The long Phœnix twilight allowed people to walk around after dinner. Calypso was sinking towards the ocean that Lupianne could see from Blanche’s windows.
At the center of the park stood a weeping willow, its shaft so wide it took three adults to circle it with their hands, its silvery-green limbs falling to the ground. Of course, the tree hadn’t grown to su
