She laughs.
“God, don’t call me ma’am, you’re making me feel like my mother,” she says.“I’m Jean.”
Her hand is still on my shoulder.Mandy is just looking at her like she’s been betrayed.
“Hunter,” I say.“Nice to meet you.”
“Let me buy you a drink as thanks,” Jean says.She’s acting like Mandy’s not even there, and from the corner of my eye, I can see Mandy look away.
If I wanted, I’m almost positive I could have a threesome tonight.Jean’s ready to go, and Mandy might take another drink, but I bet she’d be down for a night of fun.
Instead, I wonder what Clementine is doing.I imagine her, lying in a field, surrounded by a bunch of kids, all on their backs, as she tells them about the constellations.
Fuck this, I think.
“Thanks, but I’ve actually gotta go take care of something,” I say.
Jean’s mouth droops a little at the corners, and she looks taken aback, suddenly unsure of herself.
“Thanks for hanging out with me,” I tell Mandy, which is a fucking lame thing to say, but I can’t think of anything better.
Then I grab my jacket and head out the door of the Harried Bear, turn left, and walk for the mountain.
ChapterSeven
Clementine
“Okay,”I call out.“Has everyone got their star maps?”
A chorus of small voices all say “Yes,” with varying degrees of enthusiasm.Most of them are into it, though there are always a few whose parents dragged them out here when they’d rather be watching TV.
“Great!”I say.“Now, who can find Mars?”
I like to give them a pretty easy one first.If I ask where the moon is right away, everyone over the age of about seven rolls their eyes and thinks this is kid stuff.But Mars is easy enough to find that they can do it, and hard enough that they don’t think I’m making fools of them.
A whole bunch of fingers point in the general direction of Mars.
“Exactly!”I say.“If you look a little to the left and up, now that your eyes are adjusted you canreallysee the Milky Way.”
I sweep my arm up and over my head, indicating the broad swath of stars that speckle the black sky.This is one of the best places in the country for stargazing — the closest city is Missoula, which isn’t very bigorvery close.Other than that, it’s small towns like this one and nothing but wide open sky, with hardly any light pollution for miles.
Especially on a clear night, like tonight, with just a sliver of a moon, it feels like you can see the whole universe from here.
Sometimes, I really understand how people used to think the earth was the center of the universe.It sure feels that way.
“...So when we look at the Milky Way, we’re actually seeing the flattened disc of our own galaxy,” I’m saying, the words pretty much on autopilot.“Like being in the center of a frisbee and looking out toward the edge.”
Lots of small, thoughtful faces look upward, craning their necks.
“Now,” I say.“Can anyone tell me which way is north?”
A bunch of hands point.Several of them are even pointing north, but something’s caught my eye: a figure, walking through the parking lot and toward the field where we’re all standing.
It’s Hunter.I can barely see his outline, and I can’t see his face at all, but there’s something familiar in the way he walks, his hands in the pockets of his jacket.I can’t help but smile.
“That’s right!”I say.
I keep talking about the north star and the big dipper, but I’m not really paying attention.I’ve got this on autopilot.Instead I’m watching Hunter walk up and stand way, way in the back of a group of kids.In another minute he’s following along as I talk about the constellations — Orion, Sagittarius, the Pleiades — and I just think,he came.
