Nell’s Welcome Tune

Part 1: If you could name a planet, what would you want to know about it first? Would you ask what color it was, what it sounded like, or what it liked to do?

In a tucked-away corner of a make-believe galaxy lived a little planet named Nell. She had a round green hill, a ring of pale stones, and three small lakes that made a plip-plop sound when space dust sprinkled them. In this galaxy, a gentle, invisible star-breeze carried sounds between nearby worlds.

Nell liked the plip-plop sound. She liked many things about herself. But she had one big wish: she wanted a name the visiting Star Scouts would remember.

The Star Scouts were a constellation on a journey between faraway planets. They traveled together in a neat, bright shape, carrying a little book where they wrote down the names of places they visited.

“They’ll be here soon,” said Nell’s neighbor, Brindle, a planet with orange mountains. “Tell them what makes you special.”

Nell practiced. “I am a planet with orange mountains!” she called.

“But your hills are green,” said Brindle.

Nell looked at her hills. “Right. Then I am a planet with green hills.”

A blue planet named Tumble rolled by, turning slowly as he went. “I have blue oceans,” he said. “They make a wonderful shushing sound.”

Nell tried again. “I have blue oceans and a shushing sound!”

“But your lakes go plip-plop,” Brindle reminded her.

Nell frowned. Each time she borrowed a description, she forgot the one she had tried before. What if the Scouts heard so many different answers that they remembered none?

“Maybe I should be more like Tumble,” she said. “Or Brindle. Or both.”

At last, a line of little lights appeared across the far side of the galaxy. The Star Scouts were coming!

Nell straightened her ring of stones. She tried to look blue, then orange, then green. She even held still, hoping she might look like a planet that never changed.

The Scouts arrived and circled near her. Their leader, Captain Cress, opened the little book.

“Hello, little planet,” she said. “What shall we call you?”

Nell began to answer—but all the descriptions she had practiced bumped together in her mind. Just then, Mica, the little moon traveling with the Scouts, drifted a short way from their bright shape.

Part 2: “Mica!” called Captain Cress. The little moon drifted in a looping path, unsure which direction the Scouts had gone. “Can you hear us?”

Mica’s answer came as a tiny tap, carried by the star-breeze. The moon had lost sight of the Scouts’ line and couldn’t tell which way to go.

The Scouts began searching. They called Mica’s name from one side, then another, but their voices crossed and tangled. Nell watched the little moon turn. She wanted to help, but she didn’t know what a planet like Brindle or Tumble would do.

Then she heard her lakes making their quiet plip-plop sound.

Nell remembered how she sometimes hummed along with them. She hummed when the galaxy grew still. She hummed when a visitor passed by. Her tune was simple: two low notes, then one that curled upward like a little wave.

Nell hummed it now.

“Hmm, hmm, hmmmmm,” she sang. “This way, little traveler.”

The star-breeze carried the tune between the nearby worlds, clear and steady. Mica stopped turning.

“I hear you!” the moon called.

Nell hummed again. Mica turned toward the sound. The Scouts quieted and listened, too. Nell kept the tune going, never louder than she needed to be. The little moon followed each set of notes, slowly finding its way back.

“Over here!” said one Scout.

Mica reached the group and settled beside Captain Cress. “Thank you, Nell,” the moon said. “Your song helped me find my way.”

Captain Cress closed the book for a moment. “That tune is part of what makes you Nell,” she said. “We heard it, and we’ll remember it.”

Nell looked at her green hills and plip-plopping lakes. “I do like humming quiet welcome songs,” she said. “I hum them when someone comes near, and when someone needs help.”

The Scouts smiled. Captain Cress opened the book again. “Then we’d like to give your tune a name, too.”

The Scouts listened to Nell hum the notes once more. They spoke together, softly, until they found a name that fit: “Welcome Song.”

“Would you like us to call you Nell of the Welcome Song?” asked Captain Cress.

Nell considered it. “I like that,” she said. “And I’ll keep humming in my own way.”

The Scouts wrote her name carefully in their book.

Part 3: The Star Scouts stayed near Nell for a little while, listening to the small sounds of her corner of the galaxy. Her lakes went plip-plop. A few pale stones clicked gently as they turned in their ring. From the nearby planets came other sounds: Brindle’s mountain rocks gave a low rumble, and Tumble’s oceans made their long shushing hush.

“Every planet has its own music,” said Captain Cress.

“Even if it isn’t a song?” asked Nell.

“Especially then,” said Cress. “A sound can be a hello all by itself.”

Nell smiled. She didn’t need to pretend her hills were orange, or her lakes were oceans. She didn’t have to hold perfectly still, either. She could be a little green planet with pale stones, three plip-plop lakes, and a welcome tune she loved to hum.

One of the Scouts drew a tiny picture beside Nell’s name in the book. It showed a round planet with a ring of stones and three little notes curling above it.

“That’s me,” Nell said. “You got my lakes just right.”

“And the tune?” asked Captain Cress.

Nell hummed her two low notes and her curling high one. “That part is just for listening.”

So the Scouts listened. They didn’t hurry her. The star-breeze carried the tune through the tucked-away corner, past the orange mountains, across the blue oceans, and back to Nell’s green hills.

Then it was time for the Scouts to continue along their path. Their constellation shape gathered together, each Scout finding a place in the line.

“Goodbye, Nell of the Welcome Song,” called Captain Cress.

“Goodbye, Mica,” Nell called. The little moon gave a happy tap as it traveled safely beside the Scouts.

Nell watched their line move onward through the galaxy. She knew the Scouts would carry her name in their book, along with the picture and the tune. She hoped that, somewhere along their journey, they would hum it for another traveler who needed a welcome.

Around her, the lakes made their familiar plip-plop. Nell hummed along, quietly and in her own way. Her tune stayed close to her little planet while the Scouts carried her name farther and farther through the peaceful dark.