“Hey! Are you even listening? ”, she asked. I absentmindedly nodded my head, my eyes half closed and my hand supporting my head. I still did not understand why I agreed to come to a beach at two in the morning. She had said she wanted to see the stars and apparently today, the sky was going to be clear and as the sight of beautiful sunrise would definitely be an extra treat.
“That bright star you see there is actually the planet Venus and it is the second brightest object in the night sky after the moon… ”, she was saying. With my half closed eyes, I turned to look at her. Her face was beautiful, the dim light of the night gave her face a little glow making it enchanting and somehow mysterious at the same time. The cool breeze pushed her hair away from her face gently. Her eyes that were sparkling even in the dim light, were fixated on the stars above. Stars fascinated her and she fascinated me.
I was suddenly taken back to the time when I first saw her. I had just moved into the new house. It was late at night when I finally finished helping my dad put the boxes away and went to my room to sleep. I walked to the window to shut the curtains and that was when I saw her….. A girl around 14 years old climbed out of a window on the second floor onto the roof of the first floor. She then laid down on the roof and stared at the sky. I don’t know how long I stood there and I don’t even remember what happened after that. I had somehow crashed down in my bed at some point and fallen asleep. It had already been 12 years since that day and even today I find her equally fascinating.
“Did you know when you look at a star or any object in space you are actually seeing how it looked in the past? For example the Sun appears as it was 8.5 minutes ago and the appearance of Sirius, the brightest star in Earth’s night sky, is more than 8 years old.”, she said. “Huh? Oh….I didn’t know that. ”, I stammered. She rolled her eyes and then suddenly she said, “Look the sun is rising.”
I turned my head away from her and looked towards the horizon. The sky was changing colors. Once again I hadn’t felt the time passing. I could spend hours with her and yet it didn’t feel more than a few minutes. But still I was happy. No matter how much I regretted the consequence, I’d still agree to accompany her everytime she wished to see the stars, of that I’m sure.