Pointing at stars gives you warts on your fingers

Setting: Two friends, Lucas and Mateus, are sitting on the rooftop of Lucas’s apartment in São Paulo, enjoying a warm Brazilian evening. The sky is clear, and the stars are twinkling brightly. Lucas absentmindedly points at a particularly bright star.

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Mateus:
(gasps) Lucas! Don’t point at the stars like that!

Lucas:
(confused) What? Why not?

Mateus:
(grabs his hand and lowers it) You’re going to get warts on your fingers! You know that, right?

Lucas:
(laughs) Oh no, the star police are coming for me?

Mateus:
I’m serious! My vó always told me that if you point at a star, you get warts. It’s not worth the risk, cara.

Lucas:
(smirking) So wait… you’re telling me that a giant ball of gas light-years away can somehow give me a skin condition because I lifted a finger in its general direction?

Mateus:
Look, you don’t have to understand how it works. Just trust the wisdom passed down. My cousin Rafael pointed at stars constantly when we were kids, and guess who had warts all over his hands by sixth grade?

Lucas:
Rafael also used to lick frogs and refused to wash his hands after playing soccer. You sure it wasn’t that?

Mateus:
You’re always trying to ruin my beliefs with your logic. Some things aren’t meant to be explained with science.

Lucas:
(grinning) Oh, come on. This is like saying if you eat watermelon seeds, a watermelon grows in your stomach. Remember that one?

Mateus:
Hey, I believed that until I was thirteen, okay?

Lucas:
(laughs) I know! I watched you spit out every single seed at Ana’s birthday party like it was a survival mission.

Mateus:
Because I care about my digestive system.

Lucas:
Alright, let me try this: warts are caused by a virus. The human papillomavirus. You get them through skin contact, not from celestial navigation errors.

Mateus:
That may be scientifically true, but what about cultural truth? Our traditions are important too, Lucas. They keep us connected to who we are.

Lucas:
I totally agree that traditions have value. But shouldn’t we draw a line when they’re causing unnecessary fear or, you know, finger paranoia?

Mateus:
It’s not paranoia! It’s respect. Vó Maria always said, “Os céus escutam, e castigam quem aponta.” (“The skies listen, and they punish those who point.”)

Lucas:
Your vó also thought that eating mango after drinking milk would kill you. Yet here we are, sipping mango milkshakes without dying.

Mateus:
(mock offended) Speak for yourself. I’ve been emotionally dead inside since that milkshake last Tuesday.

Lucas:
(grinning) Fine, fine. But just think about this: what if we taught kids that instead of fearing stars, they could be curious about them? Learn their names, study astronomy, maybe even become astronauts?

Mateus:
So you’re saying… next time I see a star, I should salute it with a telescope instead of a terrified finger?

Lucas:
Exactly! Look at them, wonder about the universe. Just maybe… don’t poke at it.

Mateus:
(sighs) I’ll try. But if I wake up tomorrow with a wart, I’m blaming you, your science, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Lucas:
Deal. And if you don’t, you owe me a mango milkshake—with milk.

Mateus:
(smiling) You’re playing with fire, meu amigo.

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[Both friends laugh, staring up at the stars—one a little more cautiously than the other.]