I’m still looking at aplanet.
Something hundreds of millions of miles away.
Talk about feeling small, but tonight, that’s kind of comforting. What are my worries and frustrations and hair-ripping frustration with my grandfather’s secrets against the vastness of the universe?
I exhale slowly.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Sophie says.
“Fantabulous,” I say. “Super cool, Soph. Can we see Mars?”
“Not right now. It comes up pretty late this time of year. I wish they were up around the same time. You’d have to wake up really early or stay up real late to see it.”
“Oh, sure. That’s the only planet I’ve ever really noticed in the sky,” I say.
“That’s because it’s so red. Venus is easy, too, but it’s just bright,” Sophie explains. I can’t help smiling at the way she schools me. “It’s way cooler through a telescope. If Dad lets us stay up, I could show you.”
“Unless she’s sick or jet-lagged, my girl should always be asleep at four a.m.” Kane nods gruffly, telling her it’s settled.
God help me, I smile.
“This is a great place for stargazing. No question,” I say.
And no lie.
The light pollution sucks in New York.
Even Portland can’t compare to what’s up here on the nights when the Atlantic isn’t smothering the city with clouds.
Here, the night sky sprawls as far as the eye can see with only the faintest light to one side where Sully Bay is.
“Wow, you can seeso much.” Sophie sounds so happy.
I glance at Kane with his eyes half-closed in the chair. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen him relaxed.
Even so, I can feel his attention on us.
And I wonder why they picked here for a getaway.
“So, am I speaking to the future head of NASA?” I tease, looking at Sophie again.
She blushes so fiercely I can see it even in the shadows.
“I really like space,” she says.
“Being an astronaut would be cooler,” Dan says.
They bicker for a few minutes about what’s more impressive—a scientist discovering a new planet or an astronaut walking on Mars—while I take another peek at Jupiter.
Honestly, the clarity isn’t nearly as impressive as the high-res photos you can pull up online.
Still, it almost looks close enough for me to reach out and touch.
But when I pull back and squint up at the night sky and there’s nothing but that small bright pinprick of light, the universe doesn’t feel like a massive empty room.
A cool wind blows in and I shiver.
“Right, guys. You still have a lot of people on both sides who’ll agree,” Kane interrupts a new debate about how ‘mean’ it is that Pluto isn’t a planet now.
