1. Here’s a link with the actual story.

http://www. sushidog.com/ bpss/stories/ stars.htm

2. This is an excerpt from a blog I found online:

Last night, i laid a cushion outside our room and stayed there for about thirty(30) minutes or so looking at the night sky filled with stars. we usually do this in DLSU, sa ampi. and we get to see a lot of shooting stars. last night i saw one… a red one. it was short but i made my wish. and then i thought about what Mrs. Ang, our LITERA1 prof told us when we read “Dead Stars” by Paz Marquez i think… half of the stars we see at night are already dead. they twinkle or shed light to us because it takes light years for the light to reach our planet.

3. Lucky you! I found this explanation of the story on another blog site.

I got into reading required short stories for my Humanities I class. I liked “Dead Stars” by Paz Marquez-Benitez, because I was able to relate to the story. I liked it enough that I’ll tell you the story.

The story opens with Alfredo, a yuppie lawyer who is engaged to Esperanza. His relatives speculate about when they’ll get married, because they’ve been engaged for four years now. Typical man afraid of commitment? Uhmm, not quite. Alfredo is actually in love with another girl.

That girl is Julia Salas, a girl he had met only six weeks before. She was Alfredo’s neighbor’s nephew, who was visiting their town. It all started with casual talk, and soon enough, Alfredo found himself looking forward to the Sunday visits, or “pangangapit- bahay” where again he could get to talk with Julia.

Anyway, soon enough, Julia discovered about Alfredo’s impending wedding. She tried to remain calm and indifferent when she was face to face with him, although it was obvious that her heart was broken. They say goodbye.

Back home, Alfredo got into an argument with Esperanza. Emotions ran high and soon, Esperanza brought up Alfredo’s tryst with Julia, and asked him if he still wanted to marry her.

We flash-forward to a few years later. We discover that Alfredo had gone ahead and married Esperanza, but has spent every night since thinking about Julia and whether he had made the right choice.

We find Alfredo taking a trip in search of a witness to Sta. Cruz, which also happens to be Julia’s hometown. Finding a little free time for himself, he decided to pay an old friend a visit.

He knocked on her door, she answered, surprised. She hadn’t changed much, but he noticed that something was missing. There was no… magic. He then realized that he was over her. All this time, “he had been seeing the light of dead stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed places in heaven.”

Best wishes to you!