part 2.
I want to say bless the little girl Lyric Lawson who was tragically killed by a stray bullet in Cleveland. I hope her killer is caught. I don’t usually encourage informing but in this case I do. If you know who fired the bullet , think of her and call it in.Bless your soul and have a wonderful journey , Lyric.I hope your next life is a wonderful and full one – Travis Smith
There were thousands of them and looking through the high powered instruments even more appeared. They were red , blue , orange , yellow and white. There were a couple distinguishable nebulae and globular clusters. Travis pointed out a favorite site and guided Sara’s eyes to a small triangular set of three blue stars. Looking through the binoculars about sixty of them came into view. These were young blue giants furiously fusing hydrogen into helium and heavier elements. In a few hundred million years they would start blowing themselves up and spreading their heavy elements out into space where they would eventually be absorbed by other collapsing clouds destined to become smaller stars with planets. After a couple of hours Travis and Sara crawled into their tent and entered the dream world.
The car cruised down the long black road that disappeared in the distant dark. The woman in the passenger seat had fallen asleep several miles back. The man driving looked over at her. He was checking again and realized it was true. He was attracted to her. Her dark spryly hair flowed down like an erupting maelstrom of dark fire burning around her pretty face. Shit , did he just write a poem about her hair? Was she dreaming right now? Shit , stop thinking about her and what she is thinking or dreaming.
They had been working together now for almost a year. He thought he sensed sexual tension between them at times.But he was a man and they always thought sexual tension was in the air. She seemed to hide that part of herself well. She always acted professional most of the time. She had a sense of humor and joked around sometimes. But it felt like they had come to a point of being more than just colleagues. Were they friends , could he say that?
Once she had shown up at his house upset because a guy she had known forever took her out and got drunk and became obnoxious. She grew uncomfortable and told him she was calling a friend to pick her up. He became agitated and then tried to kiss her. When she pulled away he grabbed her in his arms. Luckily a few restaurant employees saw what was happening and whisked her away. She had her friend who picked her up drop her off at his house. It had been around eleven p.m. She apologized for showing up unannounced so late. He did not mind he told her , he was a night owl. They sat up talking way past midnight and when she noticed the time apologized and said she would take a cab home. Nonsense , he told her. He offered her his room and would sleep on the couch. She initially declined but he insisted. It would take a cab forever to get there. And if he drove her it would be over an hour before he got back and settled in. Finally she agreed. As he had laid there waiting to fall asleep his mind wandered to a moment when they had locked eyes and it seemed like a kiss was supposed to happen. He wondered if he should have. Did he miss the opportunity? No , he decided , she had had a few drinks and a bad night. Not good circumstances to usher in any intimacy. He would wait…
Since then they had seen each other outside of work a lot more. He guessed you could say they were friends. But now he was beginning to question whether too much time had passed to make a move. He wanted to be sure she wanted him to make a move. Did she? He liked being around her and certainly did not want to risk whatever it was that placed them in each others company. Would that be in jeopardy if he made a clumsy move?
Now they were on a mission to go check out claims of strange lights outside of Boulder Colorado. They were astronomers out of the Colorado state univerisity in Fort Collins. Sara’s cousin was a deputy sheriff there and called her about the the sightings. He told her residents were calling all evening and a few were well known and respectable people. The opportunity to capture some rare natural phenomenon was too good to pass up. Sara’s cousin said some folks feared it was spaceships driven by aliens. They both chuckled at this. Travis and Sara both believed other stellar systems had planets like Earth and alot of those planets produced intelligent life some of which were most likely hominin like beings similar to humans. And it was very likely some of those systems were older than Earth which means its inhabitants would be more advanced and capable of interstellar travel. So some would be within thirty to fifty light years and maybe once or twice they flew over or near Earth. This was probably when dinosaurs walked the land or the first hominins.
He watched the sky as he drove. A green streak appeared lighting up the night with a eerie glow. He knew it was just a meteor but the general public may mistake it for something else. Was this their mystery light? But it would be rare to see multiple green meteors in one isolated area. There were no showers expected. Though he was a scientist , he secretly would consider this to be a good omen for something… Perhaps a future with Sara. He smiled at the superstitious notion and looked over at her. It wasn’t too mystical really when you considered the strangeness of the stars and planets appearing in the dark of space. The underlying quantum processes and the downright spookiness of its weird mechanics was something most humans would never contemplate or understand. If they did they would all be walking around in stunned silence and looking at everything with an awed expression.
Sara stirred in her seat. She opened her eyes and yawned.
Travis Smith
DOC #529433
