There’s a kid at one of the telescopes, standing on his tiptoes and messing with it, his face intent.
“DON’T TOUCH THAT!”Clementine shouts, and the kid looks over, suddenly freezing.“Those areveryexpensive and alsoverybreakable!”
The poor kid looks terrified, and he backs away, his sad eyes looking up at her.
“I wanted to look at Andromeda,” he says.“This one was positioned the closest, and you looked busy, so I just thought...”
I walk over as Clementine checks the telescope quickly, then heaves a sigh of relief.
“What’s your name?”she asks.
“Aidan,” he says.
“Aidan, I know you’re just interested, but these areverydelicate and you need special training to use them without breaking them, okay?”she says.
“Sorry,” he says, looking a little like he might cry.
I feel bad for the little guy.He’s obviously just over-eager and let his excitement get the better of him.Apparently satisfied that the telescope is fine, Clementine looks at the kid, then looks around.
“Where are your parents?”she asks.
He looks a little guilty.
“In the camper,” he says.
We all pause a moment.
“Asleep,” he goes on.
Clementine sighs.
“Okay, we’re going to walk you back there now,” she says.
“But can I just?—”
“No,” she says, and points in the direction of the campground.“Move it.”
The three of us start walking, Aidan between the two of us.He sighsverydramatically for an eleven-year-old, and I almost feel bad.
“WhereisAndromeda?”I ask, trying to get his mind off of this.
He looks up at me, suddenly excited.
“It’s next to the constellation Andromeda,” he says.
“I thought we were talking about the constellation,” I say.
“That’sperfectly visible to the naked eye,” he says, as though he’s explaining this to an even younger child.“I wanted to look at the Andromedagalaxy.It’s the spiral galaxy closest to the Milky Way, and you need a telescope to really see?—”
“Aidan!”a voice shouts.
We stop and squint into the darkness on the road.A moment later, a man appears, running in sweatpants, a t-shirt, and unlaced hiking boots.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”the man yells.“I woke up and you were justgone, you scared the shit out of your mom and me.I had no idea where you were.You can’tdothat.”
When he gets closer, he looks at Clementine and me.His hair’s wild and he’s breathing hard, completely freaked out.
“I’m sorry,” he says.“I had no idea he was gone, thank you so much for finding him...”
