Wes and Fizz Find the Fox

Can you find three stars that twinkle together? Wes and Fizz are looking for them, too.

Wes stood on a quiet lookout at the top of a small make-believe moon. His silver space boots made little dents in the dusty ground. Beside him, Fizz, a tiny moon moth, perched on the rim of his helmet. Fizz’s wings were the color of warm toast, and two feathery feelers curled above her head.

Wes lifted his star map. “I promised I’d show you the Fox constellation,” he said. “It’s supposed to have a long, curving tail.”

Fizz tapped the map with one tiny foot. “Then let’s find it!”

The sky stretched wide above them. Stars sat here and there, scattered like buttons tipped from a jar. Wes looked from the map to the sky, then back again. He turned the map sideways. He turned it upside down.

“Hmm,” he said. “These stars don’t look like a fox at all.”

Fizz fluttered to a low stone ledge. “Maybe the fox is hiding behind a cloud?”

There were no clouds anywhere. Only the dark sky, the moon’s pale ground, and so many stars that Wes couldn’t tell which ones belonged together.

He pointed to a bright group near the edge of the lookout. “Could that be its nose?”

Fizz tilted her head. “It might be. Or it might be a very small spoon.”

Wes chuckled. He traced a line on his map, trying to connect the stars, but the line zigged one way and zagged another. The fox still wouldn’t appear.

He sat on a flat rock and laid the map across his knees. Fizz landed beside it. For a little while, they listened to the moon’s quietness. Far below, a ribbon of silver dust curled around a hill. Above, the stars held their places.

Wes looked up again. “Maybe we’re trying to see the whole fox too soon,” he said. “Let’s look for one small clue.”

Fizz’s feelers pointed toward the far side of the sky. “I’m ready.”

Wes followed her gaze. Three stars were waiting there. One flashed, then another, then the last. A moment later, the first flashed again.

“Did you see that?” Wes whispered.

Fizz’s wings lifted. “I did! Let’s watch them once more.”

Wes and Fizz watched the three stars. The first flashed, the second flashed, and then the third. A little pause followed. Then the first flashed again.

“Like a tiny sky song,” said Wes. “One, two, three—and back to one.”

Fizz bobbed in time. “One, two, three!”

Wes held up his map and searched for the same group. There they were: three small marks near the Fox’s tail. But the marks didn’t show which way the tail curved. In the sky, stars seemed to be scattered all around them. Wes tried to guess, drawing a line from the third star toward a bright one below it.

“Does that look right?” he asked.

Fizz fluttered over to the bright star, then circled back. “It makes a tail that points straight down.”

Wes peered at the map. “Fox tails curve. I’m still not sure.”

For a moment, the answer seemed as far away as the stars themselves. Wes could have stopped. Instead, he watched the three twinkles again, carefully this time. First, second, third. Pause. First, second, third.

On the next round, he noticed that the space between the third star and a nearby star was just a little shorter than the other gaps. He looked at the marks on the map. That nearby star sat where the curve began.

“I think I see it!” Wes said. “The three twinkles point us to the start of the tail. Then it bends toward that star, and curls around.”

“Shall we follow it?” asked Fizz.

Wes rose from the rock. “Yes. Come along, Fox.”

He pointed at the first star, then the second, then the third. Fizz fluttered beside each one, her wings making small, neat beats in the still air. Wes moved his finger to the nearby star. Then he slowly drew a curve through the next stars, bending it upward and around.

“Can you trace it with us?” he asked. “Start at the three twinkles, then follow the curve!”

His finger reached the last star. Suddenly, all the scattered points made sense. Two stars formed the fox’s ears. A little line made its back. And there, curling behind it, was the hidden tail.

Fizz gave a happy loop. “A fox!”

Wes grinned. “We found it together.” He made a small wagging motion with his hand, left, right, left. “That’s how I’ll remember where its tail goes.”

Wes made the little tail-wagging motion once more. Left, right, left. Fizz copied him in the air, her wings making her wiggle like a tiny kite.

“Now I’ll remember it, too,” she said. “The Fox has a tail that curls like this.”

Wes pointed out the fox’s shape again. Its nose faced a quiet patch of sky. Its ears stood up between a pair of bright stars. Its back ran along a small row of points, and its tail curved around to meet the three twinkles.

“Can you see the tail?” Wes asked. He traced its path slowly, giving anyone watching a chance to follow with a finger. “There it goes, around and back.”

Fizz fluttered beside each star in turn. She didn’t hurry. Between one point and the next, she paused, as if the fox were showing her the way.

The lookout stayed still beneath them. Their map rested on Wes’s knees, no longer upside down. He drew a tiny curved line beside the Fox’s name so he could find the tail again. Then he tucked the map into the pocket of his space suit.

“Thank you for helping me look,” Wes told Fizz.

“Thank you for letting me come,” she replied. “I’ve never seen a fox made of stars before.”

“Neither have I,” Wes said. “Not this one.”

They sat together on the flat rock. The moonlight lay across the lookout, and the edge of the map made a small square on Wes’s lap. Fizz settled beside his sleeve and folded her wings. Wes looked up at the Fox once more.

The three stars flashed in their familiar order. First, second, third. Wes gave the tail-wagging motion with one finger, so small that only Fizz noticed.

She smiled. “I see it.”

Wes traced the curve one last time in the air. Then he lowered his hand and rested both hands in his lap. The Fox stayed in its place above the quiet little moon, and the moonlight grew faint across the stone.

Wes leaned back, with Fizz perched beside him, while the wide night held the stars overhead.