The Stargazers (23 page)

“What’s that light?”

“That’s Abigail Carpenter’s house. This is her field. She’s the oldest lady in town, far as anybody knows. She doesn’t drive anymore or anything, but still has her grandson drive her down to the Quick Lube every three months for service. We don’t even charge her for it.” Bryon laughed. “The only miles she puts on the car are to and from Quick Lube.”

Aster smiled. “And she doesn’t mind you hanging out in her field?”

“Nah, it’s cool. Besides, it’s not like we’re out here drinking or smoking pot.” He hefted the case over from the backseat. “This is educational.”

They walked several paces away from the car and they helped each other spread the blanket onto the ground. Aster took a seat as she watched him remove the scope from its black box.  It was a wide orange cylinder, a few feet long, with the word “CELESTRON” printed along the side. Its buttons were a mystery, but Bryon se
emed comfortable with all of it. H
e attached the cylinder to its tripod legs with a loving delicacy
and gave the whole thing a
wipe down
with a little cloth. After that, he spent a
few minutes pushing buttons and looking through the little eye piece. “I have a lot things programmed in here. Lately, I’ve been tracking a dust storm on Mars for the last couple weeks. Maybe we’ll start with that.”

He spent a few more minutes looking and making a few more adjustments. “Here. Take a look,” he said, stepping back.

Aster leaned forward and peered into the telescope with one eye. At first, she h
ad a hard time seeing anything
, but
Bryon instructed her to look into it with both eyes open. When the image solidified, she saw a perfect red-orange sphere. A whole other world in all its terra-cotta glory. Striations of alternating orange and brown covered its face, with more brown toward the bottom, which must have been the dust storm. “It’s so beautiful. I feel like I could reach out and touch it.”

“I wish I could. My goal is to see someone set foot on Mars soil in my lifetime.”

“Like you?”

He laughed. “If only. I don’t think a manned flight to Mars will happen for another fifty years, so I’ll be retired from being an astronaut. But I can still help to develop the mission.”

She could almost hear Nanny Lily sniffing her disdain at the thought of someone visiting another planet.
Foolish children. They disrespect and ignore their own world and they think they can learn more somewhere else?
Aster pushed the negative thoughts away. Bryon’s dream was beautiful to her.

He
punched more buttons and the telescope made its own adjustment toward another destination in the sky. “I wanted to show you this because it reminds me of you.”

She put her eye to the telescope again and a marvelous miasma of greens, pinks, reds, and blues greeted her, all suffused with a heavenly glow that rivaled that of any magic she had ever seen. “What is it?” she asked, breathless.

“It’s the Orion nebula. Millions of years ago, a star exploded, leaving behind these giant clouds of gas. Over time, they form new stars. It’s a place of intense beauty but fiery heat.” He turned to her. “They look like pretty wisps of color from far away, but up close, they’re full of danger.”

She looked at him. “You think I’m dangerous?”

“No, not exactly. I just think there’s more to you than what people can see at first. When I look at you, I think of the stars. So giving and warm, but also a great source of power that I’m not sure I understand completely.” He grinned. “Actually, some of the gases in the nebula match your hair.”

After a little more starg
azing, Bryon put down his controller
.

“You had enough?” he asked.

Aster smiled. “Fo
r now. Maybe we can
gaze with our own eyes for a bit.”

“I like that idea.” They sat for a few moments, but eventually they reclined onto their backs. Bryon outstretched his arm so she could rest her head on it. Without the aid of the telescope, the sky looked like needlepoint on black felt.

“Don’t you feel a little lonely looking at things that are so far away? That you could never touch?” Aster said.

“I guess so. It’s hard not to feel a little insignificant looking all the way out there. But I think it reminds me to try and appreciate the people on Earth a little more, you know? We’re the only people we’ve got. It’s even better when you can look at the stars with someone.”

She rolled onto her side to face him. “I’m really glad you brought me.” He looked at her with a longing that matched hers. She saw in his eyes the need to seek solace and comfort in something close, and love it completely. He drew her in for another kiss, only this time there was a new hunger in it, a desire to merge their two bodies the way the swirling clouds in the nebula came together with enough heat to form new stars.

His hands were buried in her hair, tugging gently, sending shivers down her spine. When their kiss broke, she could see a burning intensity in every contour of his face, but it was tempered by something softer. He wanted to please her more than he wanted to please himself
, and that frightened her
.
She thought of Bryon’s father, and the promise she’d made to herself not to hurt him. She hoped she could keep that promise.

“Are you comfortable?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yes.”  She brought his hand to one of her breasts. It wasn’t something she thought of consciously. It was instinct borne of a need to be touched and be lost in the pleasure of it.

They kissed for a few more minutes before he pulled away again. “Maybe we should slow down.”

With the fire still roaring through Aster’s body, she didn’t hear him at first. “Go down?”

Bryon’s jaw dropped a little. “I, uh. No, I mean if you want. But I wasn’t sure if you—”

“I want to. I mean, I think I do. It feels like I do. Don’t you?”

“I really do. You have no idea how much I want to right now. It’s just… I don’t want to feel like we’re rushing too fast for you. Or us. That… God, I feel like a nerd. My friends would call me any number of names for even thinking about slowing down with a girl like you.”

Aster giggled. “I think that’s what I like about you. That you’re thinking.”

“Good.” He was grinning again. “I just feel like I want the moment to be perfect. My dad has always been big on the whole being a gentleman thing, and so I want to do this right. Take you on some real dates and stuff
first
.”

She gazed at the pinpricks in the sky above her with the half-moon shedding a bright halo and wondered if there could ever be a more perfect moment than this to make love with someone, but her desire was based more in a raw need for comfort and escape. Once it was over, she’d be alone with all her worry and confusion again. Until she could figure out what she was going to do, she couldn’t surrender herself. Not yet. 

“What sorts of dates would you take me on?” she asked, hoping a lighter conversation would ease her lust a little bit. 

Bryon laughed. “I’ve been thinking up a list in my head since we first met. There are all sorts of great places to go on nature hikes around here if you like that sort of thing.”

“I love it.”

“We also have a good movie theater nearby. On my Quick Lube salary, I could even buy you popcorn or candy. Probably not both, though.” He winked at her.

“I’ll have to think of some things I can do for you too,” she said.

“You’re already doing everything I want. I probably sound lame, but when you’re around, I can’t stop smiling. It’s like I’m infected with happiness.” He was quiet for a few seconds and then said, “But if you ever wanted to cook dinner again, I’d let you.” 

They both laughed and lay holding each other on the blanket until the moon had nearly reached its apex, looking like a huckster’s grin. Then they sat up and Bryon began the process of breaking down the telescope and returning it to its case while Aster folded the blanket.

On the way back to Oasis house, they held hands while listening to some mellow music that was both strange to her ears and beautiful. She would love to take some of it back with her, even if her return to Ellemire was only to say goodbye to her mother and grandmother.
She didn’t think she could live with them again, given the enormity of what they had hidden from her.

Mama Iris’s words surfaced in her brain again, like a bubble.
You got to go your own way
. Dahlia would be horrified to know what her daughter was considering.

She asked him to stop at the corner so she could walk the rest of the way.

“Will I see you again soon?” he asked. “Hopefully really soon?”

“Definitely. I’ll come find you again tomorrow.”

“Good.” He smiled. “I guess I’m hooked on you now.”

She kissed him again. “Me too.” She opened the door and stepped out. “Good night
, Bryon
.”

As he drove off, she watched the red lights on the back of his car carry on
up the road like a pair of red eyes looking back at her,
and she suddenly felt cold and alone again. Walking down the street with competing feelings of longing and fear, she was happy to see that there were no lights on at the Oasis house.

-20-

Aster crept up the stairs of t
he dark and mostly silent
house. The deep snores coming from behind the bedroom doors as well as the sharp scent of various cleaning compounds told her how hard they must have worked all day. The clock hanging on the wall at the landing between the second and third floors read
just shy of
11:30, and she hoped she would get a few hours of sleep before she had to leave again.

You’re a coward.

Perhaps
. But she didn’t know exactly what she was dealing with.

Oh give me a break. You know exactly who you’re dealing with. It’s Oleander, or if it isn’t her, it has her dirty work written all over it. You should send word to Lily and Dahlia right now and let them deal with it.

But so much was different now because of Mama Iris. If it wasn’t for her, Aster might still be on the path to becoming pregnant and then killing her own child. They had lied to her and forced her to hold to an obligation that they couldn’t. She could no longer count on them to do right by
her
.

But what would they do if she tried to separate herself from them?
Her mind culled up
horrible
images of a forced impregnation at their hands, perhaps with an imprisoned Bryon, followed by months spent in bonds until she birthed her baby. And then she’d have to watch as they took the knife into their hands…

She couldn’t believe they would do such a thing, but with their world at stake, they may be driven to do just about anything to release the Old Magic, maybe even take the knife to her themselves, as they were supposed to do.

Aster
decided it was best not to confront them at all until Oleander was handled.
With Mama Iris here, she at
least had a fellow witch’s
wisdom in her corner, and she intended to meet with the old woman tomorrow to discuss her options.

She tiptoed into the bedroom she shared with Ruby, hoping not to disturb the sleeping girl, but a lamp flicked on and Aster jumped and banged her elbow on the dresser. “Ow! Ruby?”

The other girl sat in the corner on the threadbare recliner. Dark circles ringed her eyes, which looked puffed from crying, and her hair stood up in the crazy spikes and cowlicks of someone who had tossed and turned for several hours before giving up on sleep. Aster noticed her arm was covered in a big white bandage. Little rosettes of blood had seeped through the gauze.

“What happened to your arm?” Aster asked.

“So you’re too good for helping out around here, and you’re also too good for curfew?
” The words lacked
Ruby’s dark humor and Aster felt her guard rise. She’d been expecting this all day.

“Ruby, I was told to stay away. Ivy doesn’t want me here. You have to know that I wou
ldn’t just leave you here without
reason.”

There was so much more she wanted to say, but Ruby was like a steel trap with a very loose trigger. If Aster started in too soon and with too much, Ruby would pounce and tear her to pieces.

“Uh-huh.” Ruby looked away, her jaw trembling. It was as if she wanted to believe Aster but wanted more to hold onto her rage. “So you were with
him
, I guess?”

“Part of the time, yes.”

“I suppose you two are a real couple now?” The word “couple” shot out of her mouth like a ball of phlegm.

“Yes, but I thought we already talked about this. Is this why you’re so upset right now?”

“Don’t act like you haven’t been thinking or feeling the things I’ve been feeling. There’s something different about us, and you know it! I though
t
we could have been…”
She looked down.
Tears
spilled from her eyes
and she punched her thigh. “God, why does this have to be so goddamn hard?”