Stardust

They met under a tree in the evening.

He brought her a necklace with a tiny piece of what he called "meteorite".

Then he told her the story of how he found the piece.

He was helping his father plough a field when he noticed a stone unlike anything he had ever seen.

It looked so dark and rich in components of various colors, that he though it must have come from space.

One day, he read in a book that said: in the beginning, the universe was so filled with radiation it was very, very hot.

The radiation dispersed gradually, and from it emerged simple particles of gas we now call "hydrogen".

Some clouds of hydrogen began attracting others, and as they collectively formed even bigger clouds, they collapsed into stars.

Gravity made the hydrogen atoms bump into each other more and more frequently, and the fused atoms (hence "nuclear fusion") created heavier elements, like carbon and calcium.

Then some stars burnt out, becoming supernovae.

You see, when a supernova collapses, it explodes bursting parts of its mass around.

That mass sometimes clumps together, and when there is enough of it in the given area, it can even form a planet.

This is the only mechanism we know of that can create a planet like the one we inhabit.

There is no other way ^[1] particles like can be created so we could build a human being out of them.

You are made of stuff that once was created in a star.

The calcium in your bones. The iron in your blood. And everything around you.

There is no other way we know of in which it could have been formed.

When they were parting, he said:

While you wear this necklace, please remember: if you ever lose it, don't worry. Remember that every part of you is made of star stuff anyway.