Moment of Impact

1.

"Mom, I wanna see the stars tonight!"

I didn't have swim practice in the morning, and I wanted to go somewhere, do something. The news muttered rumors of a summer storm of meteors. I heard it first from my dad, and avid amatur astrologist. Without much of a thought, we packed up our car with some sparse supplies and children.

We'd made impressive quantities of popcorn, and packed the limited edition Swedish fish Oreos that we had been saving for a special occasion. We ate these for dinner, and a few handfuls tortilla chips someone had the sense to throw into the back of our van. The wonderful thing about Utah is that you can drive for about an hour, and be in the middle of a vast expanse of nowhere. I brought my ukulele, and we sang "you are my sunshine," "my clementine," "I lava you," and "somewhere over the rainbow." As we drove it got darker, and emptier, and ruggeder. Finally we came to a spot on a stretching dirt road, and parked our massive hulking beast of a van. My dad set up the telescope before the tents.

We did eventually start building the tents, but got lost in the skies midway through. We took a break and laid out some quilts under the celestial ceiling, my whole family sprawled before the heavens. We talked and laughed, ate ate even more popcorn, until the jubilant utterances dulled to a hum, and the hum to piercing silence.

No one ever remembers the exact moment they fall asleep, but I remember waking up on the dirt and the morning air tickling my eyelashes. We ate dry cereal as we explored the romping wilderness for hours. Until it was time to go.

"Time to come back to earth."

My mom joked as we piled back into the car. We headed back to our worries and responsibilities; back to earth after our trip around the stars.

I don't think I was meant to completely comprehend the beauty and meaning of a summer night. That comes to poets, and read by people, and not to be understood by anyone. But I was there for a night, where the light falls across the sky, and families lie on quilts in the middle of a desert.