Pulvis et umbra sumus

Category A: Second Place (2026) Monash Short Story Writing Competition
Author: Meena Chow

“I just want to go home,” he said to the endless dark.
And from somewhere beyond the stars, something answered:
“Then come home.”

Space had never felt so close. It wasn’t quite comforting to know that a few centimeters of glass was all that was keeping me from drifting away - but maybe that was what I wanted? The earth looked so small, a little blue marble spotted with fading green. It had taken me a while to realise how insignificant we were. The universe was incomprehensibly large. It was vast enough to swallow every hope, every life, and every memory without leaving a trace.

Stars surrounded me in impossible numbers. Out here, they didn’t twinkle or shine like they did from earth - they simply existed, cold and eternal. Their light had travelled millions of years before reaching my eyes. Some of them were already fading, but it seemed as if the universe was reluctant to let them go. Out here, there was no wind, no sound, no voices - it was just me, my heartbeat, and an endless sea of darkness. I found peace in the silence.

I used to believe I was meant for something extraordinary. That if I worked hard enough, the universe would notice. Every triumph had been celebrated, and mistakes were forgotten. Yet from here, grand cities faded into blurred shapes, disappearing into white clouds that concealed wars from view. I had wanted to leave a mark - something that I could be remembered by. Here on a spaceship drifting thousands of miles away, I had finally discovered something. The universe didn’t care. It didn’t care who won or who lost. The stars would burn whether I lived or died. Galaxies would collide without ever learning my name. I wasn’t important. And somehow, that no longer frightened me.

Somewhere below me, billions of lives continued on. People laughed, dreamed and  mourned, believing that their stories were at the centre of everything.
Once, I believed that too.
Now I know better.
We are but dust and shadow.
But perhaps, that was never meant to diminish us.
I smiled into the dark.
I was nothing but an echo.
Yet I had never felt so alive.