Charlie had dreamed about becoming an astronaut someday. She loved space and everything about it. Her bedroom was adorned with pictures of stars, planets, and galaxies. She had read all the books written by the astronauts and could name every star, planet, and constellation in the sky. Every night, her dreams were all about celestial bodies.

When Charlie told her father that she wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up, he told he she needed to come back down to Earth. “Don’t be silly. You’re a girl,” he told her. “You can’t be an astronaut. You should focus on being a nurse or a teacher, vocations much more suitable for a girl than being an astronaut.”

When a very upset and crying Charlie told her mother what her father had sad, she hugged Charlie and said, “Don’t worry about what Dad said, sweetie. He’s so twentieth century. I’ll talk with him and let him know how women’s roles in the twenty-first century go well beyond nursing and teaching.”

The next morning, when Charlie woke up, her bedsheets and her hair were covered by little gold and black starts and there she found a note that read,

To infinity and beyond, my little Buzz Charlie Lightyear.

All my love,

Dad

Written for Melissa’s Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge. Image credit: Annie Spratt on Unsplash.