Page 12 - Universal

The beam of light disappeared, leaving the window it had drawn in the middle of Eric’s
sitting room, hanging in mid-air. It now looked exactly like a real window. It had a big

sheet of glass in the pane and a metal frame. Beyond it, there was a view. And that view
was not of Eric’s house, or of any house, road or town, or anywhere else that George
had ever seen before.

Instead, through the window George could see an incredible, vast darkness, peppered
with what looked like tiny bright stars. He started to try and count them. “George,” said
Cosmos in his mechanical voice, there are billions and billions of stars in the Universe.”

“New stars are created all the time. They are born in giant clouds of dust and gas. I am
going to show you how it happens.”

“How long does it take for a star to be born?” George asked. “Tens of millions of years,”

replied Cosmos. “I hope you are not in a hurry.”
“Tut-tut,” said Eric, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside the sofa, “don’t worry, George,

I‘ve speeded it up quite a lot. You’ll still get home for dinner.”

George noticed something about the view through the window onto outer space: not all
of it was covered with little stars. In the bottom corner of the window, he saw a patch

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