Number the Stars

“How many stars are there in the sky? And what are their names? Merry, do you know?”

“Millions, I suppose.” Merry rubbed at his eyes tiredly. “Far too many to name.”

Pippin frowned. “But everything has a name.” He kicked off the blankets, heedless of Merry’s irritated grumbling and sat up, studying the sky intently. At length his face brightened, and he declared, “We’ll just have to name them ourselves, then.”

“You’ll run out of names before you’re half finished,” Merry replied, though he could not suppress a small smile. “Aren’t you a little tired, Pippin? We spent the entire day walking. Anyone else would be-” he paused to yawn enormously “-exhausted.”

“No,” Pippin insisted, though he retrieved the previously discarded blankets and settled them once more over Merry and himself. He wedged his tiny form into Merry’s side, rearranging his cousin’s arm so that it wrapped securely around his own waist. “I’m not at all sleepy, Merry. What should we name that star over there, the one that’s twinkling?”

Merry sighed, just a little, and forced his bleary eyes open. “I think you’re right, Pippin. All of the stars must already have names. Perhaps Bilbo would know, and we can ask him tomorrow when we reach Bag End.” He could tell that Pippin was about to ask something else, and so he hurriedly spoke again. “For now, I think we should count the stars. It might help Bilbo to remember all their names, if we first remind him how many stars there are.”

Thinking this over, Pippin finally nodded, his curiosity quelled for the moment. “You had better start counting first, Merry. I lose track of numbers sometimes.” His sheepish smiled turned into a sizeable yawn, and he snuggled closer to his cousin.

Nearly laughing with the absurdity of it all, Merry began to count, starting with what he hoped was the beginning. “One…two…three…”

“Don’t lose count, Merry,” Pippin murmured sleepily.

“Sshhh, I won’t,” Merry whispered, but Pippin was already asleep.

***

The day had been a long and exhausting one, but Merry knew that he would find no rest tonight. It was only then, as he stared out the too-large window, did he recall that he and Pippin had never finished counting the stars, nor had they bothered to ask Bilbo their names during that visit to Bag End so long ago.

Merry shook his head a little, thinking of all the missed opportunities he and Pippin had had along the way, of all the people they might have asked – Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel…all of them were sure to have known such a thing.

Well, it was too late now to ask anyone. And so Merry spent that night, and the ones that followed, assigning a number to each star and hoping that by the time he finished, Pippin would be at his side once more.