The stars are brilliant tonight, scattered across the sky like diamonds. There’s no moon, which makes them brighter and the night darker.
Wyatt parks his truck at the edge of the ridge and kills the engine. The silence is immediate and complete, broken only by the sound of cattle lowing in the valley below.
“So beautiful up here,” Callie whispers, climbing out of the truck to get a better view.
“Best view in the county,” I tell her, grabbing a couple blankets from the truck bed.
“Better than the view from Thompson Ridge?” Jesse asks with a grin.
“There is no Thompson Ridge,” Callie says.
“Exactly my point. Nor is there a McCoy Ridge.”
I spread the blankets on the ground a few feet from the truck, and we settle in to look up at the stars. Callie ends up in the middle, whether by accident or design, with me on her left, Jesse on her right, and Wyatt stretching out below us.
“So,” she says after a few minutes of comfortable silence, “what are we doing here?”
“Stargazing,” I say innocently.
“Talking,” Jesse adds.
“Figuring things out,” Wyatt finishes.
“Figuring what out?”
“What happens next,” I say.
“Between all of us,” Jesse clarifies.
“Nothing happens next,” Callie says, but there’s no conviction in her voice. “This is just... a moment. A temporary lapse in judgment.”
“Is that what you want it to be?” Wyatt asks.
“It’s what it has to be.”
“Says who?”
“Says reality. Says logic. Says the fact that this is impossible.”
“You keep using that word,” I observe.
“Because I mean it. Impossible means this can’t happen.”
“No, impossible means it’s never been done before,” I say.
“I don’t think so, Boone.”
“Well,” Jesse starts, “people said it was impossible to fly. Go to the moon. Put a computer in your pocket.”
“This isn’t technology, Jesse. This is people. People with families and histories and expectations.”
“People change,” Wyatt says. “Families adapt. Histories get rewritten.”
“Not our families. Not our history.”
“Maybe it’s time they did.”
She’s quiet for a moment, looking up at the stars. I canalmost hear her thinking, weighing possibilities against probabilities.
