The Desert Observatory – Part 2: The Pleiades

The minibus left without her. Henrik had arranged it with the driver, who winked, and said he would collect Camila at dawn.

They lay on a spread blanket beside the cooling telescopes, a second blanket over their knees, the whole of the Southern Hemisphere wheeling slowly above. The cold was clean and dry. Somewhere far off, a fox called once.

"There," said Henrik, pointing. "The Pleiades. Seven sisters. In my country they are the little hen with her chicks."

"In Chile, we say the Seven Goats."

"I like the goats."

A meteor streaked overhead, thin and bright, and Camila caught her breath. Another followed. Then three at once.

"Make a wish," said Henrik.

"I thought that was a myth."

"It is. Do it anyway."

She closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them, Henrik was looking at her instead of the sky, and his face was open and unguarded in the starlight.

"Can I ask you something?" said Camila.

"Yes."

"What did you wish?"

"That you would not leave on Thursday."

Her heart turned over. "I could stay a few days."

"Could you?"

"I have been travelling for three weeks to find a reason."

"Then may I kiss you?" said Henrik. "Under the seven goats?"

"Yes," she said. "And if I say stop, you must teach me every constellation by name."

"That would take several years."

"Then I hope I never say it."

He kissed her gently, cold fingers cupping her cheek, the warmth of his mouth startling against the desert air. It was slow and sweet, the meteors falling above like silent applause, the telescopes standing guard in the dark.

When they parted, both of them were smiling.

"Green?" asked Henrik.

"Green," said Camila. "Very green."

At dawn, the sky turned from black to violet to gold, and the first sun touched the volcano's snowy rim. Camila did not climb into the minibus. She sat on the blanket with her head on his shoulder and watched the stars go out, one by one, until only Venus remained.

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