A clear cold night closed in as we prepared to brave
it. The car had gotten stuck in a snow
drift. Thankfully, the snow had finally
stopped, but we were still stranded. Bob
and I had begun this adventure to rekindle – how ironic that we found ourselves in
a snow laden crystal wasteland, quite literally cold as ice. How would we “spark” in this predicament?
I was the winter weather lightweight. Where I’m from if we see two snow flakes fall
we close schools and businesses, and buy all the milk and bread in the store; we shut
it down until the roads are safe again. Where Bob was from a snow day was just
another winter day and life continued on as it normally does. He had checked the forecast and was sure we could
make it. I don’t think that he was
wrong. I just think that sometimes
Mother Nature throws us a curve ball and even our most modern scientific analysis
cannot predict that.
So there we sat in the bucket seats, covered in the blankets
we had in the back of the car for just such an emergency, trying not to notice
the waning gas needle indicating the last of the mild warmth the car was still
generating, and hoping our staticky 911 call had provided enough information to
the operator to dispatch help to us.
We settled in for whatever would come holding hands under
the layers and staring hopefully through the glass sunroof. We probably should have closed the cover to
protect from heat loss, but the night was so beautifully clear now with stars
brightly shimmering.
Perhaps we were seeking their heat. It was the last good warm thing in our frozen space that we
could fix our attention on – the warm thing we could imagine saving us. We were
reminded of a warm summer night 13 years ago when we star-gazed and decided to
make our love official.
For distraction we tried desperately to pick out familiar
constellations. But, we were far from
home and the diamond laden velvet sky offered no familiarity. We had to become like the ancestors who had
first peered at the heavens trying to find the familiar.
“Look!” Bob said, “there…”
He pointed to the left of our sunroof-framed view. Maybe it was an eastern view…it was hard to
remember direction.
“See that Big Cat in the sky?
I laughed. That was
my nickname for Bob, my Big Cat.
“Yes, I see it.”
“What constellation do you think it is?”
“How should I know??? I can’t even pick out the Big Dipper!”
“That’s an asterism, not a constellation.”
Again I chuckled, that was my Big Cat, my amateur
astronomer. I smiled at him. “Well, tell me, what constellation is it?”
“It is Panthera Aethra, of course.”
“What? You are making
that up!”
“No, it’s the Sky Panther…see…?” He pulled me in close so I could try to see
from his view, down the sight line of his arm.
“See…there are the star points that are the ear tips…and there’s the
chin…the eyes…”
“I see it!”
“Then you know.”
“Know what?”
“You know that we will be alright, the Sky Panther has
appeared.”
“Panthera Aethra” I whispered.
I know he made that up, but in that moment I believed…and we
were ok. We had the heat of the stars to spark us.
Wonderful story... warms the heart. I think I will look for a Sky Panther in our sky, to tell a similar story for my Grandkids. [we already have dragons in the river, and fairies under the ringed rocks]. Thanks for adding to the constellation stories>
ReplyDelete"You know it will be alright, the Sky Panther has appeared." He sounds like an optimist...
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