One night several months ago, Matt was driving me home from the MAX stop. As we slowed to a halt at the intersection with Cornell, I was enjoying the swath of stars visible above the apartment complexes, when suddenly, I saw a meteor. It burned an arc through the darkness that was fully 15 degrees of the globe of night. It was huge, bright, sudden, and intoxicating, and it was an unmistakable emerald green. I felt my heart stop as Nature and I examined each other, as when a dragonfly hovers nearby, crystalline and alien.
“Matt!” I finally gurgled.
“Hmm?” he was engrossed in traffic.
“Shooting star! Huge! Green! There!” I am so eloquent. “Did you see?” He had not. I pondered the black stretch of sky and the faint glow on my vision, and suddenly I thought, Big meteor. Green. My heart leapt—half from the buoyancy of fangirl laughter, and half from the hormonal madness with which I am afflicted.
“You know, Matt,” I said softly, half-ashamed, “if we went and found where that meteor fell in the fields of Hillsboro, and there was a darling little baby boy gurgling out of the crater? I would keep him and keep it secret, no matter how many cars he could lift.”
Matt looked at me dubiously but affectionately, and said, “Yes, dear, I know.”
Comments
Supergeek
So did you find the meteor or didn’t you? If not, who will save Pa Whelan next time he gets himself trapped under an unwieldy piece of farming equipment?
nice
What a beautiful experience!! :) Hope you may see more during the Leonids!
Re: Supergeek
More like, “Hey, Clark! [which, by the way, I do think is a very nice name. Actually much more likely than any Bruce or Wayne Whelans :p] Get over here and solder this with your heat vision!”
Tho’ actually Pa Whelan does not do much soldering, either.
And no, we are not suddenly and mysteriously parents. I mean, I said I didn’t want cats because I want to have nice things, right? How much less do I want a toddler with superstrength?
Re: nice
We never remember the Perseids or the Leonids. We did go see Mars the day AFTER it was the closest in thousands of years, but we aren’t good at remembering that stuff in general.
Re: Supergeek
For the record, I have never soldered a thing in my life. I’m a software guy.
Not that I have not interest in electronics; I do. I just don’t know nearly as much about them and I don’t actually own a soldering iron.
Re: Supergeek
And since the women find him handsome, they don’t have to find him handy, to reverse Red Green.
And hey, honey, didn’t I acknowledge your non-soldering thing? It’s more likely than farm equipment, anyways.
Re: Supergeek
I soldered something once, and when I messed up it HURT like BURNING. At least when I make a typo in my code I don’t get physically burned for it. I’m with Matt on this one.