She was now driving maybe 60 miles per hour down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. This was it, this is what was wrong with her. She must have secretly been an ax murder. She was getting some sick pleasure being his friend all day, and then boom!
“What are you doing?” he asked, holding on to the door handle, starting to become extremely nervous.
“I’m showing you something!”
Ethan was starting to panic. She stopped the truck so hard, all the dogs and him nearly fell through the window.
“Look at that,” she said. He looked out and could see the plains lighting up every few seconds. In the distances, he could see cloud to ground lighting. Purple, yellow, gray would flash and disappear. They were way too far away to hear any thunder, and looked like it was dying down. “Isn’t that pretty?”
He nodded his head. “It’s pretty. But it’s late, and I need to get home-”
“Ethan, look, look at the lighting. You need to learn to enjoy the little things. And what’s the rush, anyways?”
They sat there, watching the lighting. It was addicting actually, to wait for the next flash. It was more entertaining than any tv show he’s watched in a while.
He liked looking at Aspen, he liked watching her watching the storm. Her eyes would light up, and he could see a smile once a while. They were too far away to hear the thunder, but the silences between them seem to be pretty loud.
Once it was done, he thought they were going to get going. But she didn’t move, she just watched where the storm was, pretending that it was still going on. She looked up, and smiled so big.
“Come on out,” she said as she opened the door. He watched her climb on top of the hood, laying back. Stinky gave him a nug with his nose. Ethan got out, eyeing the dog.
“Ok, crazy, I want to go home. You promised I would go home. I’ve been with you all day, and I am just tired, okay? What are you even doing? Do you know how late it is?”
“Look up.”
“What? No! Stop being weird! Just stop with all this-”
Aspen pointed to the sky. “Look up.”
He moaned, but he looked up, and he was glad he did. He had never seen anything like it. He saw millions, no, billions of bright stars staring down at them. He couldn’t look away. It’s been a while since he could see stars like that. In the city, you’re lucky to see one star, and most of the time it was a plane. But out there, in the middle of nowhere, overlooking the plains, he could see all the stars. He felt so small, so tiny, but so powerful. He never felt that way before.
“You want to sit up here?” she asked. Without a word, Ethan hopped on the hood with her, and laid down. He could not look away. He was so amazed by how many white dots were looking down at her.
“There are so many stars,” he finally said.
Aspen glanced at him. “You ever gone camping? Or get away from the city?”
“Last time I went camping, I was fighting with my brother that whole time. I was seven though. My dad had to cut it short because something at work came up.”
“My family went camping a lot,” Aspen told him. “We had a short tiny camper, but I loved it. We traveled in it a lot too.” He didn’t know what to say. He just kept staring at the stars. Aspen started naming some of the stars. “My dad taught me all the names.”
“You know Aspen, you’re lucky.”
She looked over to him. “Why do you say that?”
“I don’t know. You just are. You’re so happy all the time, and nothing gets to you.”
She shrugged. “Well, I’m not as happy as you think. I have my gone days.”
Ethan waved her off. “I doubt that.”
She didn’t say anything more on the matter. Instead, she said, “When I was little, I used to think that all those stars were actually souls. Like, when you died, you became a star in the sky for everyone to see. It’s silly I know, but I used to have a lot of silly thoughts as a kid.”
He smiled. “It’s not that silly.”
“Sometimes,” she said not taking her eyes off the sky, “I like to think that maybe my brother is up there, with the stars. And that he is looking down at me, protecting me like he used to do. And sometimes, I wish I could talk to him. I miss him, you know? I want to talk to him so badly. It kills me.”
Ethan thought about her words for a moment, and then said, “Maybe . . . maybe you could be the Star Whisperer.”
She about jerked her head when she heard those words. Ethan could see, even in the dark, a huge smile crawling on her face. And for once, he felt like that he had said something right.
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