PEMG-Please excuse my grammar (I have not Grammar Nazied this story yet)
The Comet
He had waited his whole life for this moment or at least it felt that way. Starting up at the sky, he felt a rush of anticipation. He had arrived at the observatory a full hour early to be sure as to not miss the comet. Not just any comet but Barnard’s Comet on its last night to be seen which, after tonight, wouldn’t be seen again for another one hundred nineteen years.
From the top of the observatory the pink and orange sky would soon be a large velvet cover, scattered with diamonds. Of course he knew that wasn’t true. The stars were hundreds of luminous balls of plasma held together by gravity. They were suns in varying phases but just for a second, he allowed himself, a sensible man, to be wrapped up in the blanket that was the sky. He had done this before, thousands of times, on the naval vessels that he called home over the years.
He had joined the Navy at just eighteen years old. Not just so he could watch the stars but to pay homage to his Grandfather who shared the same passion and was also a sailor. As a young child he would go to his Grandfather’s farm in upstate New York and he would show Nicholas the different constellations; Orin, the hunter, Ursa Major (the Big Dipper), Cassiopeia, the trapped Queen and Pegasus, the winged horse.
“They are all fleeting.” He had said to him as a boy. “They move around the night sky.”
“Are there any that don’t move?” Nicholas asked.
“Ah,” his grandfather smiled. “Polaris.” He pointed up with his wrinkled bare hand to the brightest star in the sky. “That is the only star that is constant. Find that star and you’ll always know where to go.”
It was true. In the navy they had taught him as a navigator to use the stars, particularly Polaris, the North Star, to find you way. Although in modern times sextants and stars were rarely used to navigate. With modern Global Positioning Systems and Electric Navigation, he rarely needed to look at the stars to find his way but every night he went you to the deck to find Polaris.
Standing on deck in the brisk sea air he would pull his coat on. Then, for some reason, he would forget to breathe with the wind whipping in his face. He barely noticed it at first but when he felt his lungs got heavy he’d force himself to take a breath, breathing in the salty sea air. Looking up he’d find Polaris in the sky just to make sure the ship was going the right way. In those moments he could feel the life in him mean something.
Copyright 2011 Melissa Glasser
No comments:
Post a Comment