The Night Sky

When I was a little girl I loved to lie out on our back deck and fall asleep watching the stars. I was afraid that the big spiders might get me in my sleep. I would imagine them crawling on me. Sometimes I would get to cold and would creep back inside. But most nights I would let the myself be lulled to sleep by the shimmering stars. As I got older my dislike of spiders and other unpleasant things in nature made it not worth it to watch the stars.

For years after my backyard adventures I hadn’t even had a second though about the experience. However, every year my boyfriend goes to a gathering, much like the one I had in my backyard. It happens during the annual meteor shower in late August. They call it a “Star Party”. Everyone meets on the top of a low lying mountain where it is much easier to see the stars. This year I was invited to attend, and reluctantly I agreed to go.

The day of the Star Party it was overcast. My boyfriend and I headed up to the mountains in hopes of the sky clearing up. We arrived late, at about eleven thirty p.m.. Everyone else had arrived earlier and was long asleep. But I was darned if I was going to go to sleep. I didn’t drive two hours over the mountain pass for nothing. My boyfriend and I sat up for two hours. As soon as my eye lids were feeling as heavy as boulders, I saw a bright light streak across the sky. It was so fast. I would have never noticed it at home, where the sky is filled with bright city lights, looming cloudy smog, and towering sky scrapers. I was so excited. I stayed up for another hour, hoping to catch another glimpse of a meteor. However the sky did not clear up and we did not see anything else.

In the middle of the night I was freezing. Despite the four layers of clothes I was wearing I could still feel the icy cold gnawing at my skin. I decided any sort of shelter was better than none. I pulled myself off the hard ground, and rushed to the nearest car. The door was unlocked, and I crawled in. I contorted my body around the steering wheel, and there I slept.

I woke up to the morning sun filling the car. When I climbed out I needed to use the bathroom. I was mortified when I realized that the only bathroom was my choice