“Saturn has a ring,” Mum said.

“A ring like YOUR ring?” asked Ava.

“Rather bigger.”

The library was holding an evening for looking at the night sky. Its telescope stood on the roof, and the library team were helping families use it.

Up on the roof!

Ava pulled on her coat. Louis found his scarf. I checked that my screen was clean. Nobody wants a smudge between them and a planet.

On the way, they passed a small telescope in a shop window. Six coins. Ava had six.

“If I had that, I could look whenever I liked,” she said.

“You could ask what it shows,” Mum replied. “Let's try the library telescope first.”

At the library, they stayed with Mum and followed the team's instructions. Ava waited while a child looked through the eyepiece.

“Wow,” the child whispered.

Ava moved one step closer.

When her turn came, a member of the library team helped her look. At first she saw darkness. Then a tiny bright shape came into view.

Saturn. With its ring.

“Oh,” said Ava.

She wasn't usually an “oh” sort of elephant. She was usually a “LOOK AT THAT!” sort. This was a very large oh.

Up on the roof!

Downstairs, Louis found a book with planets inside. Ava chose a page showing Saturn and drew its ring on some scrap paper.

Her six coins were still on her band. Her head was somewhere much farther away.

On the way home, she held Mum's hand and looked up.

“Rather bigger,” she whispered.